American Dreamz

By asking its audience to “imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than their president,” American Dreamz, the latest from Paul Weitz, the director of American Pie and About a Boy, arrives in movie theaters this week to offer its insightful and often hilarious two cents on the state of current political and pop culture affairs.

A mordant satire of the most zeitgeist-y phenomenon in recent years (the titular Dreamz refers to the American Idol send-off around which the story and its characters gravitate), as well as the askew morals and values of American society, the movie is also a thinly-veiled homage – wink, wink – to the current administration and the politics of politics, as well as the war and the real motives behind it.

One character astutely and ambitiously points out early on (read on to figure out which one) that any idiot can be on TV nowadays. Later, another, under different circumstances, also points that any idiot can do “it” (the “it” being leading the country). Do you see where the filmmaker is going?

American Dreamz takes aim at not only these people, but also their mentality. And it is all very funny.

The movie starts on the morning of President Staton’s (a bumbling, Southern-accented Dennis Quaid) re-election. Perhaps wondering what it is all about, the president decides to read the newspapers for the first time in four years, which leads him to obsessively re-examine his black-and-white views of the world.

Holing up in his bedroom in his pajamas for days, his behavior invites press speculation of a nervous breakdown and alarms his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe), who figures something needs to be done. So, he decides to push the president back into the spotlight by booking him as a guest judge on the weekly talent show American Dreamz, a ratings juggernaut of which the country cannot get enough of.

This is, of course, a tremendous coup for the show, and especially for its host, the self-aggrandizing, self-loathing Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, doing his best Simon Cowell), who is always on the lookout for the next bright young thing to turn into an instant-celebrity.

Tweed’s latest crop of hopefuls includes Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, turning in a finely nuanced performance that made think of her as young Michelle Pfeiffer, acting ability-wise*), a conniving steel magnolia with a hopelessly devoted, not-all-there veteran boyfriend (Chris Klein), and Omer (Sam Golzari), a recent Southern Californian immigrant (who just happens to be a show tune singing, would-be terrorist awaiting activation).

As you can very well imagine, when both Sally and Omer make it to the final round of Dreamz, the stage is set for a show the nation will not soon forget.

While American Dreamz does not trek new territory, it does a swell job at being this nice little package of timely, cutting commentary on many of the topics that so irk some of us.

It's also a fine showcase of talent – the cast includes Marcia Gay Harden as a Laura Bush type, the invaluable Jennifer Coolidge and Judy Greer (TV’s Arrested Development), Seth Meyers (SNL), and Shohreh Aghdashloo as a beyond-Americanized Middle-Eastern woman and polar opposite of the similar role she played two seasons ago on TV’s 24.

*I mean both Pfeiffer and Moore seem to thrive in roles that call for them to be slightly wicked (see the erstwhile Catwoman in White Oleander, and Moore in Saved!).

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Universal Pictures.