popular thinking

AMERICAN DREAMZZZZZZ

Hey, here's a fun media game. Count how many headlines today tab the new movie, American Dreamz, as something along the line of Dreamz with a ZZZZZZ or Dreamzzzzzz. Yes, it's a snoozer. Too bad. For one thing, if your so-called satire's tagline is, "Imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than for their next president," then, well, you're not a satire. This already IS America. Much of the movie goes the obvious route, too. Haven't we already seen umpteen comedy skits involving Bush, Cheney and American Idol? Give us something different. Something more. Something telling about our society and where it's heading. This is no Network, that's for gosh darn sure. In fact, after the preview screening of "Dreamz" earlier this week, I headed a couple of doors down from the cineplex to Best Buy and picked up the new 6-DVD collection of Network, All The President's Men and Dog Day Afternoon. Those are movies that still resonate 30 years later. "Dreamz" doesn't hold your conscience 30 minutes later. Besides, why would you hold a preview screening of "Dreamz" on a Tuesday night, up against the real thing? It maketh no sense.

All that said, the guy from the Globe sitting next to me (Mr. Ty Burr) really liked the film and laughed throughout. The rest of the audience laughed a bunch, too, but at the jokey jokes and not the satire. Because, again, there really wasn't much in the way of true satire here. Burr at least recognizes that. My colleague (Mr. James Verniere) offers his review here.