My Little Hollywood is about a first-time director trying to make a movie in Hollywood. It is shot with a palm-sized camcorder by the director himself, who also acts in the movie as the "movie director." But no, it's not made by one of the countless first-timers who populates Hollywood--it's made by a well-established filmmaker, Matthew Harrison, who has been everywhere a dilettante could ever dream of being: one of his movies won the special jury price in Sundance, the other, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who likes his movies, opened at the Cannes Film Festival, and his television credits include Sex and the City, yes that show which redefined the urban female psyche. And boy, has Mr. Harrison things to say about making a movie in this particular environment called Hollywood.
We meet our main character, a coffee addict named Costello in a remote desert among the Mexican mafia, which seems to be mostly composed of Asian gunmen, pouring their ammunition into practice targets, and Costello's girlfriend, an Italian fashion designer, holding a 45mm handgun. Costello, or Cost, grabs his 12-ounce coffee and reasonably flees from that situation. He's headed to Hollywood, with a little camera in his hand, to make his first film. But the very first thing he does in Los Angeles is introduce us to his second girlfriend, from whom he runs away even quicker: a belly dancer named Suzy, dancing her heart out in a Van Nuys banquet hall. Are these crazy things real? A dream? The movie he's making and we're watching? Or all of them together? These questions, although never fully answered, crystallize the film from beginning to end.
Cost finds his movie star, Revs (Shawn Andrews DAZED AND CONFUSED) ("you need a movie star to make a movie around here", he figures at the get-go), and troubles ensue. Revs' appetite for women is the obstacle as Revs beds each one of the prospective actresses and they bitterly leave the movie after their one-night-stand with Revs; "the movie" moves further and further away from existence. As this and similar predicaments advance the plot, they also deepen the characters, especially Cost: He hates Revs' womanizing self, yet he himself goes through two girlfriends within the first minutes of the movie; he complains about no one takes the movie seriously, but he proclaims "a tear jerker romance scene and it's done--this Hollywood movie thing is a piece of cake;" a "New York woman" calls Cost and asks him to come back to New York (Mr. Harrison himself is also a displaced New Yorker) and Cost says she is the love of his life but he can't go back to her. These contradictions torture Cost, and also seem to be what's fueling him further in his journey.
As the movie progresses Los Angeles emerges not only as a chief obstacle, but also one of its main characters. Rain pours down from the looming dark skies, there isn't a single palm tree in sight that I can recall, people eat in nauseating diners, discuss the art and craft of a good blow job, hover around unfriendly liquor and grocery stores, appear and disappear from depressing parties, (if they can't find a party, they break into a house and throw one themselves), and all these images are seen from a coffee-addict's perspective, magically distorted by Cost's ultra- wide-angle lens and cheap hi8 video tapes; Los Angeles has never been more real than on this screen.
My Little Hollywood has nothing in common with a mainstream movie (except its tight narrative economy); in fact, just as in one scene seemingly supporting the theme, Cost and Revs climb up to the Hollywood sign and Revs flips off the entire city, My Little Hollywood flips off both conventional feature and short film lengths with its 62 minute running time. But "seemingly" I say, because, Hollywood might be only one imagined phenomenon this movie takes issue with. After peeling off the film's top layer to the deeper levels, as the situation becomes violent, and Cost slowly gives up hope of making a Hollywood movie and his dreams, or his over-caffeinated reality, or the "movie" gradually becomes an "independent film", Cost rants: "I could make more commercial movies, I don't have to drive around with you losers, I could have a life." At this point, the weirdness of the city's "independent scene" and its people come into play, and the director seems to be picking a bone with himself as a character.
John Horn's impressive wall-to-wall music score vitalizes the movie's every second. The camera work is simply stunning, the aforementioned hi8 tapes and ultra-wide angles lens contribute tremendously to the movie's subtly surreal visual tone. In the dialog scenes, usually single continuous takes, the character of the lens is used for dramatic effect: the lens distorts the closer character more than the others, and the most distorted character is Cost himself since he's holding camera. Acting is superb across the board: Shawn Andrew's performance brings words to mind like startling, original, passionate. He burns up the screen with his ferocious honesty. Tiprin Mandalay delivers a smoldering performance - she's a force of nature. Jason Oliver weighs in with total confidence and his impeccable comic timing.
My Little Hollywood, like any movie targeted to reach the full potential of cinema, will attempt to tap into your subconscious. During their search for "the real," the troubled souls in this movie seem to be content with the unreal, or imagination, or dream, or whatever else you call it, and from this deliciously messy omelet of real and unreal, some truth emerges in this deeply personal and sincerely made movie. It will ask of you an active viewership; no spoon- feeding storytelling here, but watching it will be a rewarding experience, and might give you an image or two that will stay with you long after the movie.
We meet our main character, a coffee addict named Costello in a remote desert among the Mexican mafia, which seems to be mostly composed of Asian gunmen, pouring their ammunition into practice targets, and Costello's girlfriend, an Italian fashion designer, holding a 45mm handgun. Costello, or Cost, grabs his 12-ounce coffee and reasonably flees from that situation. He's headed to Hollywood, with a little camera in his hand, to make his first film. But the very first thing he does in Los Angeles is introduce us to his second girlfriend, from whom he runs away even quicker: a belly dancer named Suzy, dancing her heart out in a Van Nuys banquet hall. Are these crazy things real? A dream? The movie he's making and we're watching? Or all of them together? These questions, although never fully answered, crystallize the film from beginning to end.
Cost finds his movie star, Revs (Shawn Andrews DAZED AND CONFUSED) ("you need a movie star to make a movie around here", he figures at the get-go), and troubles ensue. Revs' appetite for women is the obstacle as Revs beds each one of the prospective actresses and they bitterly leave the movie after their one-night-stand with Revs; "the movie" moves further and further away from existence. As this and similar predicaments advance the plot, they also deepen the characters, especially Cost: He hates Revs' womanizing self, yet he himself goes through two girlfriends within the first minutes of the movie; he complains about no one takes the movie seriously, but he proclaims "a tear jerker romance scene and it's done--this Hollywood movie thing is a piece of cake;" a "New York woman" calls Cost and asks him to come back to New York (Mr. Harrison himself is also a displaced New Yorker) and Cost says she is the love of his life but he can't go back to her. These contradictions torture Cost, and also seem to be what's fueling him further in his journey.
As the movie progresses Los Angeles emerges not only as a chief obstacle, but also one of its main characters. Rain pours down from the looming dark skies, there isn't a single palm tree in sight that I can recall, people eat in nauseating diners, discuss the art and craft of a good blow job, hover around unfriendly liquor and grocery stores, appear and disappear from depressing parties, (if they can't find a party, they break into a house and throw one themselves), and all these images are seen from a coffee-addict's perspective, magically distorted by Cost's ultra- wide-angle lens and cheap hi8 video tapes; Los Angeles has never been more real than on this screen.
My Little Hollywood has nothing in common with a mainstream movie (except its tight narrative economy); in fact, just as in one scene seemingly supporting the theme, Cost and Revs climb up to the Hollywood sign and Revs flips off the entire city, My Little Hollywood flips off both conventional feature and short film lengths with its 62 minute running time. But "seemingly" I say, because, Hollywood might be only one imagined phenomenon this movie takes issue with. After peeling off the film's top layer to the deeper levels, as the situation becomes violent, and Cost slowly gives up hope of making a Hollywood movie and his dreams, or his over-caffeinated reality, or the "movie" gradually becomes an "independent film", Cost rants: "I could make more commercial movies, I don't have to drive around with you losers, I could have a life." At this point, the weirdness of the city's "independent scene" and its people come into play, and the director seems to be picking a bone with himself as a character.
John Horn's impressive wall-to-wall music score vitalizes the movie's every second. The camera work is simply stunning, the aforementioned hi8 tapes and ultra-wide angles lens contribute tremendously to the movie's subtly surreal visual tone. In the dialog scenes, usually single continuous takes, the character of the lens is used for dramatic effect: the lens distorts the closer character more than the others, and the most distorted character is Cost himself since he's holding camera. Acting is superb across the board: Shawn Andrew's performance brings words to mind like startling, original, passionate. He burns up the screen with his ferocious honesty. Tiprin Mandalay delivers a smoldering performance - she's a force of nature. Jason Oliver weighs in with total confidence and his impeccable comic timing.
My Little Hollywood, like any movie targeted to reach the full potential of cinema, will attempt to tap into your subconscious. During their search for "the real," the troubled souls in this movie seem to be content with the unreal, or imagination, or dream, or whatever else you call it, and from this deliciously messy omelet of real and unreal, some truth emerges in this deeply personal and sincerely made movie. It will ask of you an active viewership; no spoon- feeding storytelling here, but watching it will be a rewarding experience, and might give you an image or two that will stay with you long after the movie.
