No Hopes For "Dreamz"

The ads for the new movie American Dreamz, opening today, invite us to "Imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than their next president." Considering that the only time I've seen the ads on TV have been during American Idol, I have no trouble imagining such a place, though I have a few qualms about actually living in it, and I would really love to see a really hard edged biting satire on contempory American politics and pop culture. I just don't think that Dreamz is going to turn out to be that movie. In fact, I don't even think that Hollywood is capable of making a film like that anymore. There really hasn't been a good social satire on film since Network, exactly thirty years ago. Audiences, or at the very least the Hollywood corporate weasels who greenlight films, demand happy endings, and, for the most part, happy endings and effective satire don't really go together.

Besides, Hugh Grant stars in this film and Grant is most associated with lightweight romantic comedy, not trenchant satire. Add in the fact that director Paul Weitz's most notable credit is American Pie and you can see why I don't hold high hopes for this being the next Network.