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Hollywood sure can make trashy look glamorous
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is LaDonna Potter and I am writing about the pretty but pretty FRUSTRATING Movie “Hollywoodland,” which is set in Hollywood in the 1950s.
It is all about how George Reeves, the Actor that played Superman on TV, wound up dead and who killed him. Or it’s supposed to be about that, but at the end of the Movie, I had no idea who pulled the trigger because they show it happening three different ways, like they couldn’t make their minds up. But the Costumes are beautiful!!!!
Of course I am way too young to know much about the 1950s! ;-) But I do know my fair share about Fashion, and there is a lot of it in “Hollywoodland”!!!! :-)
But wait, I should tell you more about the Movie first!
Ben Affleck (who was SO cute back in his “Pearl Harbor” days but has gotten pretty flabby lately) plays George Reeves, who was a Tarleton Twin with bright orange hair in “Gone With the Wind.”
That was a long time ago, and George is having a hard time finding work now. So he has plenty of time to fool around with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), an older woman who is the wife of a Movie mogul played by the short British man from “Roger Rabbit.” [Editor’s note: Bob Hoskins.]
George meets Toni at a Restaurant, and they start flirting BIG-TIME! She laughs at his jokes, and he tells her he’s real happy that he’s spreading so much joy. And she goes, “Who knows what you might be spreading.” And in one scene, George goes, “Do you want to see the real Man of Steel?” It’s little lines like that that remind you that the Movie takes place at a time when people knew how to be raunchy as all get-out but still make it sound elegant!!! (I bet it is what dirty Sex-talk sounds like in French, but I have never even been to New York, much less France.)
Ben and Diane make a very attractive couple, but I have to state for the record that I am against Adultery since after all that is what destroyed my own Marriage no matter how many times my ex-husband Ray says he didn’t do anything with that stripper. A woman knows things.
Anyway, Toni buys George a house and goes out with him in public, and her husband doesn’t even seem to mind. (California is SO weird!) But then George gets the job playing Superman and he dumps Toni, all for this gold digger [witch] named Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney), and if Leonore Lemmon is not a stripper name, I don’t know what is!!!!!
George tells Toni, “She makes me feel young.” And if I was Toni, I would’ve shot George in the head myself — but that is NOT one of the ways the Movie shows him getting killed!!!
Oh, I forgot to say, the Movie goes back and forth in time, because this Private Eye named Louis Simo is trying to find out how George died. (The P.I. is played by Adrien Brody, who needs to gain weight as much as Ben Affleck needs to lose it!)
Louis’ private life is just as big a mess as Superman’s, I am serious! He has a girlfriend who helps him in his Sleuthing. But he also has a wife (Molly Parker) and a little son called Scout, which is confusing because that is the girl’s name from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” right?
Anyway, Louis is a lot like George, except for the being dead part. Both guys have a major drinking problem, and I can relate to that!!! There is this one scene where Louis drinks-and-drives his way across town to pick Scout up after school. Only, he is not supposed to be picking him up, and he causes a scene and Scout runs away from him.
Boy, did THAT take me back! I remember when Ray pulled the same stunt during our first few weeks of Trial Separation when Cal was in Nursery School, and his teacher (Cal’s teacher, I mean, not Ray’s) liked to call the cops!!! Ray was so smashed, his breath smelled like he had gargled the entire contents of a Strip Club, including the ashtrays.
This happened only a week after Cal’s cousin Little Dwaine had taken in a loaded German Luger (sp??) for Show-&-Tell, and I am sure the teacher thought our whole entire Family was nothing but trash. I was so embarrassed!
Anyway, Louis Simo starts to get his [manure] together at the end of “Hollywoodland” and try to be a good Dad, even though he hasn’t solved George Reeves’ death.
Good Lord, I am out of space and I didn’t even talk about the Movie’s gorgeous Costumes! Well, just go see for yourself!!! Especially the black dress Diane Lane wears when she first shows up at the restaurant, and the pretty pink sleeveless dress with the red sash she wears when George is washing his car. Because even if you have to commit Adultery, at least you should dress well — am I right??? (Ha-ha!!!)
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By Linda L.
September 18, 2006 2:21 PM | Link to this
Dear Mr. Roadie Movie:
I read your column and couldn’t believe you failed to mention one of the best road movies of all times, “Two For The Road,” with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. This one is a classic, and you, of all people, with your movie expertise, should never have omitted it.
Thanks. I’ve never written to a columnist before, but I couldn’t let this one go.
Linda L.