Dreaming Hollywood

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Audience Member Lately I have felt like movies aren't very important anymore. The corporate stranglehold on movies these days seems to mean guys in suits trying to figure out yet again how to package another superhero movie into yet another way to tell the same story over and over again. "Dreaming Hollywood" is something different altogether. It is quite the anti-Hollywood antihero saga but without the stereotypical rendering of such a story. Remember the last bad day you had? That's every day for "Ray Balfi" a low level not so successful drug dealer with just enough innocence and naivete' left to think he has a great shot to better his life. He dreams up writing a screenplay for a cartoon he calls "The Dog's Meow." In the maelstrom of events that follows he confronts betrayal and it triggers confrontations with those around him that he feels betrayed his passion project. This is not your typical revenge movie. The world of "Dreaming Hollywood" is filled with fringe characters holding on with the desperation that their life is made better by clinging to the illusion that they have a shred of power left in their life. They don't. In one of the most heartbreaking moments in the movie "Ray's" female obsession, the prostitute "Maureen" (brilliantly played by Madelyn Allen) confesses from her low down brothel "Do you have any idea what it took for me to get here?" Indicating that "here" is an improvement over where she came from. Which is just sad. This movie is filled with characters that are memorable and who are part of the arc of "Ray's" ultimate and inevitable downward spiral. Having said all of this it belies that fact that "Dreaming Hollywood" is darkly funny, very funny, absurd in the best way possible, and the kind of movie that one could easily see grow into "cult classic" status. Turk Matthews brings a level of sensitivity and nuance to "Ray" that creates sympathy from the audience in what could easy have been just a one note character. Frank Martinez directorial debut makes you wonder where he has been all these years and makes you hungry for what he will do next. His shot selection is delicious and his dialogue is savvy, street smart and funny in the best off beat kind of way. He is also great as failed screenwriter "Tom Tellegher." Thomas F. Evans as corrupt "Detective Potts" is wonderful as is Matt Stevens as the doomed and handicapped "Tiny Slotnik." Link Ruiz is a hot mess as "Duque", a detective torn between doing the wrong thing and trying to become a better person for his soon to be born child. Eliot as the dangerous "Rudy Aquanikkio" brings a creepy darkness that one might see in a David Lynch movie. This movie is full of character actors doing great work with a clever script. There is so much deliciousness in this movie that I know I will watch it many times to mine the subtleties that can only be revealed with repeated viewings. I have seen other reviews that are more concerned with what other directors they can compare this movie to. Don't bother. "Dreaming Hollywood" is it's own world and that is more than enough. I highly recommend it. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Director and writer Frank Martinez has put together a Hollywood filled with bad cops, drug dealers, prostitutes and social rejects. Ray Balfi (Turk Matthews) is an ex-con trying to get his cartoon made but deals with rejection after rejection. But what happens when a new movie is made from it without his participation? Now Ray is out for revenge, the kind of getting even that is punctuated by music video sequences. Seeing as how he has no idea who has taken his work for him — after all, he sent the script to a hundred studios — that means that a whole lot of people have to pay. Originally known as Fade Out Ray, I've seen this movie compared to everyone from Tarantino to the Coen Brothers, Kubrick, Wes Anderson and Pedro Almodovar, which feels like people were just reaching for directors and film styles to compare this to. As for me, I have no such comparisons or limitations that I want to put on Martinez, who really pushed himself to make something unique for a first film. Dreaming Hollywood is available from Cleopatra Entertainment on all VOD platforms and will also be available on blu ray, along with a soundtrack CD, featuring the music of DMX and Onyx. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Dreaming Hollywood

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