HOLLYWOOD DREAMS / Henry Jaglom (2007)

May 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

Hollywood Dreams (2006)

Directed by: Henry Jaglom

Written by: Henry Jaglom

Genres: Self-indulgent narcissism

Cast: Tanna Frederick, Justin Kirk, Zack Norman, David Proval, Karen Black, Melissa Leo, Jon Robin Baitz, Mariah Bess, Eric Roberts, Sally Kirkland

Henry Jaglom is a talentless hack who built a career around making sure that everyone knew he once directed Orson Welles.

The Big ‘O’ gave him a role in the never released The Other Side of the Wind and in return, acted in Henry’s first feature, A Safe Place. Over the years, both Welles’ daughter Beatrice and his former lover Oja Kodar have penned numerous cease and desist letters. How they allow Jaglom to get away with using Orson’s image in his Rainbow Films logo defies common sense. It’s like putting a Dom Perignon label on a urine sample.

As in all of his home movies, there is no gold at the end of this Rainbow. Henry’s newest discovery is Tanna Frederick, a grating presence who combines the worst elements of Lucy, Carol Burnett and Carol (not Margo) Channing.

After an opening audition tape, the fear that shrill Tanna is going to be the focus of the film instantly becomes a tormenting reality. Wanting to emulate Altman, Jaglom gives his cast room to improvise. It didn’t take much time or celluloid rope for Ms. Frederick to hang herself.

Her roommates kick her out and a gay producer played by Zack Norman finds her wandering on the beach. Fans of Mr. Norman (are there any aside from Henry Jaglom?) probably remember him less for his acting chops and more for the endless self-aggrandizing ads he took out in Variety.

Zack takes the increasingly annoying Tanna under his wing by moving her into his spacious Hollywood Hills home. You know it’s the Hollywood Hills by the dozen or so jerky pans up from the freeway to Norman’s patio.

Under the rubble there is a seed of a decent story. Justin Kirk plays a heterosexual actor passing for gay. He falls for Frederick and his handlers fear that once he comes out, his flirtatious gay backers will withdraw their support. Instead of expanding this storyline, Jaglom cuts to Ms. Frederick and removes her leash.

The cast reads like a Who’s Who of has-beens and never-were’s. David Proval, the lion-loving Tony in Mean Streets, plays Norman’s lifemate. Cockeyed Karen Black pops up as a bisexual talent agent who has the hots for both Ms. Frederick and Mr. Kirk. Eric Roberts flashes his tan. And what debacle would be complete without a cameo by perpetually delusional Sally Kirkland?

Jaglom has been called an “actor’s director,” but if he really cared about his players, he never would have let Ms. Frederick make such a fool of herself. It’s certain that Mr. Henry intended the scene in which his ingénue is photographed masturbating through a prism of mirrors as a tribute to Welles’ Lady from Shanghai.

It’s been almost two decades since I last stepped into a pile of Jaglom. It was astounding to see how much the director forgot over the years.

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