Playwright George S. Kaufman's definition of satire as “what closes on Saturday night” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it points out the difficulty of making edgy commentary on real affairs palatable to a mainstream audience. Writer-director Paul Weitz skirts the problem by adopting a sitcom approach, but stumbles badly in American Dreamz, which takes aim at obvious targets and adopts a crudely over-the-top, juvenile tone. The three interconnected story strands involve 1) a clueless president and his unprincipled political guru (who could they be?), 2) the titular TV show—a send-up of American Idol, complete with an acerbic, self-absorbed British host—on which the president agrees to appear as a judge to boost his sagging popularity, and 3) two amateurs selected as the show's final contestants—one an ambitious white trash hussy happy to dump her dopey boyfriend and bed the host, and the other a klutzy al-Qaeda recruit assigned to blow up the president on national TV. This farrago of comic ideas has potential, but Weitz's touch is far too heavy, operating with a meat cleaver rather than a scalpel, and in the end it all comes off feeling like a string of second-rate Saturday Night Live sketches. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary with director Paul Weitz and costar Sam Golzari, 12 minutes of deleted scenes, the eight-minute featurette on choreography “Dance Dreamz,” the four-minute 'pop princess' segment “Center Stage: Sally Kendoo” with costar Mandy Moore, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing satire.] (F. Swietek)
American Dreamz
Universal, 108 min., PG-13, DVD: $29.98, Oct. 17 Volume 21, Issue 5
American Dreamz
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: