Henry Jaglom has been making low-budget films since 1971—and he seems entirely content to do so. His milieu has consistently been that of the structured improvisation, and only he and a couple of other filmmakers (such as John Cassavetes) have stuck to the form so closely. To an extent, I imagine that the passion for the form accounts for a good deal of that consistency; to another extent, I also imagine that the low-budget dinginess that characterizes these movies hinders more lucrative (and hence, more tightly scripted) job offers.

I doubt that Jaglom would take such offers anyway. He clearly delights in off-the-beaten-path stories such as this one—a latter day grunge take on All About Eve, set in the mutt-eat-mutt world of third-tier Hollywood productions.

Margie has come to Hollywood to be a star. Like so many aspiring starlets, she suffers from an inflated sense of talent and a deflated self-esteem. So she proactively experiments with eating disorders to keep her figure “trim,” she pursues pointless auditions so ruthlessly that she can’t hold down a job, she lies pathologically, and she lives out of her car until the car abandons her, too.

Enter the pad of gay film producers Caesar and Kaz, a nonstop flop-party of personality and second-rate glitz—the kind of place where images are groomed for the Big Show. One of those personalities is Robin, a straight male who pretends to be gay because it’s “good for business.” (The irony of such contemporary turning of tables is lost on no one involved, including Jaglom.) When Margie gets thrown in with Robin, everyone’s plans get derailed.

Jaglom’s film is just well-informed enough, and just loving enough, to either make one laugh gleefully at how satirically sharp Hollywood is here skewered—or confirm one’s worst fears about the decadence of the place. But Jaglom’s wit is extremely acid in Hollywood Dreams; as fond as he may be of these characters (as I was not), he doesn’t seem the least bit fond of the system that exploits them. That, at least, is commendable.

The bottom line, though, is that Hollywood Dreams is too much the exponent of the weakness of improvisational filmmaking, in spite of a propos performances from Tanna Frederick as Margie and Justin Kirk as Robin. After a hilarious early scene in which Margie and two young girls improv their way through one of the girls’ DV cam project, the unscripted dialog just gets too repetitive—including too many variations on “I don’t know what to say to that,” and “You tell me.”

It’s easy to tell when no one in particular is at the helm of a ship; and perhaps that’s a suitable (and intentional) metaphor for Hollywood. But it doesn’t make for a very enjoyable cinematic experience.

Hollywood Dreams is rated R for “language and some sexual content.” The gay themes aside (which are pretty mildly depicted), it’s worth mentioning that the sexuality mentioned is at times pretty strong (if not graphic), including a scene in which Margie masturbates. The scene really isn’t played for laughs, and given the improvisational nature of Jaglom’s films, it even has a feeling of “found porn.” I’d be very interested to hear an explanation of how the scene works as “entertainment.”

Courtesy of a local publicist, Greg attended a press screening of Hollywood Dreams.