AMERICAN DREAMZ 2006
38%
Written and directed by Paul Weitz
Starring Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Sam Golzari, Dennis Quaid, Marcia Gay Harden
Synopsis
Newly re-elected President Staton has signed up to be a guest judge on American Dreamz, a reality singing competition and national TV sensation that bears more than a passing resemblance to American Idol. Its creator and chief judge is scouting for fresh show talent—talent with an inspiring story—and finds just that in All-American Sally Kendoo and new-to-the-US showtunes fan, Omer.
Why We Love It
Perhaps no artifact more perfectly encapsulates mid-2000s America—when the country was as divided over Katharine versus Taylor as it was over Operation Iraqi Freedom—than this hammer-blunt satire from Paul Weitz. The About a Boy and In Good Company writer-director has called it a “cultural satire” rather than a political one, and that feels right, as his movie takes aim at, well, pretty much everything. It’s as messy, broad, and all over-the-place as a bloated Idol finale, and just as fun.
George W. Bush appears here in the form of President Staton (a doe-eyed Dennis Quaid), whose mind is blown and spirit crushed when he picks up a newspaper for what might be the first time in forever. (Willem Dafoe is fabulous as the starkly bald Cheney-alike vice president trying to pep him up.) Simon Cowell appears in the form of Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant in slime-ball mode), the creator and only regular judge on American Dreamz. But we spend the bulk of our time with the ruthlessly ambitious America’s sweetheart, Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), and Omer (Sam Golzari), who is tasked by his terrorist cousin with assassinating the president when he comes to guest judge, even though all he really wants to do is sing, dance, and win the competition.
Weitz’s script is lighter on memorable zingers than you might hope, though he sticks the landing with some juicy nastiness thrown the industry’s way: “[Agents] act greedy and mean for you so that you can seem like a nice person,” explains Kendoo’s mom, played by Jennifer Coolidge. And the sheer audacity of a studio movie going to the places American Dreamz goes is invigorating in and of itself. None of it would work, though, without the commitment of the cast, who find incredible levels of cartoon meanness throughout, without ever spilling into dull caricature.
Moore is particularly spellbinding as smarter-than-she-seems Kendoo. Skewering both her own teen-pop career and the cravenness of the wannabe stars moving through the Idol machine for their chance to emulate it, Moore is a terrifying fame monster. We’d definitely vote for her.