This independent movie was first shown at the 1993 Chicago Film Festival, but was released to video years later thanks to the rising popularity of its star, Joey Lauren Adams, around the time "Chasing Amy" came out.
The four principal characters are friends from Chicago, and New York, struggling to make it in Hollywood. They spend their free time licking their wounds at a cozy nightclub, swapping anecdotes and joshing with Shirley, their waitress.
Shirley (played by Adams), is also the film's narrator. She talks about her generation, Generation X, the unlucky thirteenth in U.S. history, which is reflected on the four guys she's come to love, despite their lack of success. She herself has no showbiz ambitions, and doesn't take seriously those who do, which, in this film, makes her unique among women.
Her "boys" are (left to right):
Bradley (Ira Heiden), who's ambition is to be a talent agent. He has an entry-level position which he is not currently making the best use of.
Tippy (Phil Brock, whose IMDB entry has lately been incorporated with a stuntman with the same name, unfortunately), a stand-up comic who appeared on Letterman last year, so he's tasted success. Opportunities since then have dried up.
Tony (Joey Dedio, who does a lot of voice-over work, and is slated to star in a movie with Martin Scorcese's daughter), an actor who just landed a small but important role opposite Al Pacino. His storyline probably best fits into Shirley's observations on generational differences in Hollywood. Actors of Pacino's generation first achieved success in what is considered the second Golden Age of Movies, the early seventies. The studios opened their gates to unorthodox methods, allowing the voice of the actor and director to take some precedence over marketing. Tony lives in a Hollywood that is increasingly monolithic, where opportunities abound for the most succesful actors, and the newly-arrived, if they hit it big on their first try. Though Tony's full of bravado with the gang, while rehearsing alone he's immobilized with fear.
Troy (Philip Tanzin), a screenwriter who spends most of his time looking to make a deal for his work, rather than writing-for-hire.
Troy feels pressure by Mona, an actress, played by Robia LaMorte, one of the many shadowy figures that torment them.
Another is a coke-sniffing investor, who wants to produce Troy's screenplay, played by Michael Culkin.
Barry Sobel (center) plays Ira, a local rich kid full of industry connections, and hot air.
The boys are flying high at the beginning, when they're interrupted by another nightlife creature, an adoring fan (Noelle Parker).
She introduces herself as "Cambi": part Bambi, part Candy (and part "Cameo", too, apparently!), and zeroes in on Tony the actor.
Cambi can't believe she's met an actual celebrity! She compares Tony to a young DeNiro.
Though his friends tease him, this is the sort of adulation Tony's been dreaming of, and he eats it up.
Cambi decides to have a seat......
....right in Tony's lap!
She gives him a friendly peck on the cheek...
and helps herself to a good look.
The performance of his that inspired all this enthusiasm? One of his local stage appearances, perhaps? No, it was last night's episode of "Punky Brewster", where he played Punky's boyfriend.
She describes, in vivid detail, and to the increasing amusement of his friends, Tony's acting opposite sitcom teen star Soleil Moon Frye.
Tony protests he only had a few lines of dialogue. She doesn't care:
"But the way that you said them, with such conviction that it moved me!"
All this time, she's been stroking the beer bottle in a suggestive manner.
Cambi wants to know what's next for him. He explains he's up for an Obie. It occurs to Cambi this is a theatre award. That's not real acting, she complains, not like in the movies.
With that, Tony's career is put into its proper perspective, Hollywood-style.
The irony here (besides the fact that Noelle is lampooning a fan gushing over an actor's brief appearance, and now she's the object of that on this page) is twofold: first, Noelle in real life has done the kind of acting her character doesn't consider real, and second, this whole movie (about the movie business) is very much like a stage play. Most of it is set at this one table, with a few scenes in other parts of the club. There's a small brick-lined area for stand-up, where Tippy faces the wrath of a small-time audience. And towards the end, there's a scene in the parking lot, where Bradley discovers his car's been stolen. He realizes he'll now have to take the bus, a fate worse than death in Los Angeles. Just then, a young bum identifying himself as a Vietnam vet (obviously a lie), distracts them with an engaging patter very similar to their own. The idea of a street bum behaving like a star search contestant seems to be the final straw for them.
(Writer/director Robert Munick plays the bum, center. He has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy, Oustanding Writer in a Children's Special for Showtime Channel's "In a Class of His Own."
This isn't the first movie about the downward spiral of a Hollywood career, but what makes it unusual is its upbeat energy. These characters fail not because they lack talent, or are tragically flawed. They just lack the ruthlessness that this particular world seems to demand of them. Plus, right around the corner at all times, is Shirley, to remind them there's life outside of the movies.
