Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [2]
I am grateful to all of my colleagues at DirecTV, where I introduce movies, and ReelzChannel, where I single out hidden gems every week on my show Secret’s Out. Writing scripts for those outlets has helped me to clarify my thoughts about many of the films I cite in this book.
My thanks go to Darwyn Carson for fact-checking the manuscript and serving as a sounding board for this material. She is thorough and intelligent, but just as important, she loves movies.
I am indebted to Richard Curtis for introducing me to Bob Miller at HarperStudio, who responded so enthusiastically to my idea for this venture. Bob’s a movie buff, too, which has made the experience especially rewarding.
My wife, Alice, and daughter, Jessie, provide endless, continual, and immeasurable love and support. Nothing I do would matter without them.
With that, I offer a wide-ranging menu of movies for your edification and amusement. I don’t present these as forsaken masterpieces: they’re just good movies that I’m glad I saw. If you take my recommendations to heart, I hope you will feel the same way.
Leonard Maltin
July 2009
1. AMERICAN DREAMZ
(2006)
Directed by Paul Weitz
Screenplay by Paul Weitz
Actors:
HUGH GRANT
DENNIS QUAID
MANDY MOORE
WILLEM DAFOE
CHRIS KLEIN
JENNIFER COOLIDGE
SAM GOLZARI
MARCIA GAY HARDEN
SETH MEYERS
JOHN CHO
JUDY GREER
SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO
TONY YALDA
MARLEY SHELTON
There is nothing new about amateur contests. Frank Sinatra made his first step toward stardom when he and the Hoboken Four appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a radio sensation in the 1930s and ’40s. (I grew up watching the major’s successor, Ted Mack, who hosted the long-running show on television.) Ella Fitzgerald enjoyed her first taste of success on the stage of the Apollo Theater in Harlem during one of its legendary amateur nights. But American Idol has taken this time-worn concept to a new level of popularity and slickness of production; in the process it has become a pop-culture phenomenon.
Anything this popular deserves scrutiny and invites satire. That’s what struck writer-director Paul Weitz and inspired American Dreamz, which not only takes on the wildly successful talent show but, in the same breath, post-9/11 feelings toward Middle Eastern immigrants and even the president of the United States. This George W. Bush–like figure (played as a sincere dimwit by Dennis Quaid) faces a crisis of confidence that may or may not be cured by an appearance on the American Dreamz television program.
Hugh Grant would seem to be an ideal choice to play a character inspired by Idol’s caustic producer-host Simon Cowell. But Weitz, who codirected Grant in About a Boy, wasn’t merely looking for a personable Brit. He realized that the actor was capable of playing the variation on Cowell he had in mind, a man who has every trapping of success but still isn’t happy. Not every actor could portray a self-loathing individual and still retain our interest in him. Grant manages that feat.
The character meets his match in the unlikely guise of Mandy Moore, a sweet-faced girl from the Midwest who’s chosen as a contestant on the show. Her all-American looks are deceiving, as the people around her are doomed to learn for themselves: she’s about as warm as an Eskimo Pie.
I have a feeling that these cold-blooded characters kept American Dreamz from becoming the box-office hit it deserved to be. What’s more, it dares to make fun of a show people genuinely love. But that’s exactly what I like about this movie: it’s a satire that spares no one. Weitz holds a mirror up to American society and uses humor to help us see ourselves at our best, and at our worst.
2. THE ANIMAL FACTORY
(2000)
Directed by Steve Buscemi
Screenplay by Edward Bunker and John Steppling
Based on the novel The