MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
|
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
MOVIE REVIEW
Entourage
When All That Glitters In Tinseltown Is Ari Gold
Entouragers:
Kevin Dillon as Drama, Jerry Ferrara as Turtle, Adrian Grenier as Vincent,
Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold, Kevin Connolly as E, Emmanuelle Chriqui as Sloan, in
Doug Ellin's comedy "Entourage".
Warner Brothers
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Tuesday,
June 2,
2015
Hedonism, insecurity, narcissism and self-loathing proudly preside in
"Entourage", the big screen edition of Doug Ellin's popular HBO series.
Mr. Ellin wrote and directed this feature-length L.A. comedy-adventure of a
quartet of Hollywood mid-level stars from Queens, New York.
In a sense Mr. Ellin's "Entourage" is a take-off of his TV series -- and picks
up where the eight-season series ended in 2011. Its shallow theater is
intact: a straight male fantasy paradise of half-naked and topless women, party
boats and booze, sun and sex. ("Everyone can stay. Except you!", a
male character barks to a man out of place in Babeland.) The demons linger
too: self-delusion, fear and superficiality, caricatured and satirized to
occasionally hilarious, biting effect.
In other words, these four Big Apple boys are being feted with a movie cheer led
by a public that lives in an era where people are famous for nothing at all.
There's very little difference between the "reality" TV stars of today and the
star-crossed men of "Entourage". The only difference is the fictional
Entouragers are famous for trying. We've loved them because they
aspire to stardom and often fail in the process. They become lovable to us
particularly when they are so desperately wrong or wronged. Eight seasons
on HBO don't lie.
Presumably for those unfamiliar with the series "Entourage" provides audiences a
soft reset. The easygoing Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is an entrepreneur whose
riches haven't alienated him from remaining a loyal chauffeur to his pals as
they drive in flashy cars down Rodeo Drive. E (Kevin Connolly) is still
wiggling in and out of complication with women, though some of those scenarios
are very stilted if not questionable, even if games played by the sexes on each
other are the stuff of both legend and misery. As for Drama
(Kevin Dillon)? Drama is, well . . . drama.
The group's lone handsome, Vince (Adrian Grenier), wants to direct as well as
star in a film. Vince recruits newly un-retired angry super agent and
bigot Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) to emerge with funding, albeit courtesy of a Texas
businessman (Billy Bob Thornton) whose son is a boorish hick (played to
skin-crawling effect by Haley Joel Osment.) Much of the foursome's future
in Hollywood arguably hinges on whether Vince's film "Hyde", which contains
imagery ripped from today's headlines, will be successful material.
"Entourage" informs us that its neurotic and chauvinistic men have better acumen
about Hollywood and image-making than they may show. After all they're New
Yorkers. They know the game. They play it well. Keep in mind
that these fragile, vulnerable, materialistic and sexist guys' anthem is
the
opening credits' primal scream from Jane's Addiction. They see
through their own stardom yet soak in it long enough to be sated before
depression or inevitable crisis hits. Like any actors these Queens brats
role-play role-playing itself, embracing oft-manufactured soap operas that
endorse and affirm their self-importance. Sometimes they become stars in
ways they don't want to.
In Los Angeles and everywhere some try to be who they aren't by trying to escape
who they are. They cannot hide. "Didn't you used to be fat?", Ronda
Rousey says to Turtle, in a statement reeking of projection. Ms. Rousey,
Emmanuelle Chriqui and Emily Ratajkowski are the only women here who have their
bearings. All the other women in "Entourage" are either man-eaters,
schemers or easy and eager lays.
"Entourage", by turns sunny and grim, is in keeping with the truism that
Hollywood's long-held view of and reality for women has endured. None of
the women in Mr. Ellin's Hollywood talk of directing or green-lighting a film.
Absent are murmurs about
unequal pay for women in Hollywood. No women studio executives abound.
In "Entourage" the state of play vis-a-vis women in Hollywood is passively
consented to. There's a distinct lack of ambition among the film's women
at large. Almost all of them are too busy drinking, complaining, partying or screwing.
It's a veneer at odds with a good few women of the TV series.
The men of "Entourage" are no picnic either. Slouches, they do what many
of the women do. That Hollywood hasn't crumbled even sooner with the manic
depressive men who run it is something "Entourage" only hints at, mainly through
the homophobic Ari. The relationship Ari has with his Black assistant
Allen (Scott Mescudi) is filled with a underlying tension that suggests -- at
least to me -- that Ari may have been threatened with a racial harassment
lawsuit by the assistant's attorney. Such is the volatility I sensed between
them. Ari, even in his intemperate state, is oddly disarmed by Allen, and
it's an interesting and unspoken atmosphere to say the least.
The observations "Entourage" doesn't make are often the best ones. We
casually laugh at the hyper-caffeinated Ari's hateful vitriol but his is the
kind that reinforces and exemplifies the bigotry, racism and sexism Hollywood
continues and historically harbors and endorses.
Sony's emails between its now-deposed co-chair Amy Pascal
and producer Scott Rudin are Exhibit A. The Internet has caught
up with them as much as it has one or two characters in "Entourage".
When real-life stars cameo in "Entourage" they are often as angry as Ari
is. The point "Entourage" both subtly and blatantly hammers home is that
everyone in Tinseltown hates L.A. or hates themselves or despises the business
of "Hollywood" or all three. They detest pretense too, and quickly
dispense of it. The film's continuous cameo comedy parade of real stars is
the underlying counterpoint to the phony bubble floated and mocked by Drama.
Presumably these jaded stars will be Vince and co. in 20 or 30 years -- if they
last that much longer in such a ruthless, cutthroat movie town. This
happy-go-lucky New York crew doesn't know jaded just yet, or dares not think
about it or its implications. They simply keep moving on, come movie deal
or no movie deal.
The truth is, recognition as the smallest of fishes in a Tinseltown hot tub of
backstabbers, fearmongers and pretentious types may be the biggest accolade
Vince's lot achieve. Some of the film's cameo stars, for all their
exaggerated disdain of the competitive creek they toil away in, send up stardom and its isolating effect with relish. In "Entourage",
save one or two exceptions, fans aren't seen fawning at the feet of the
Hollywood elite. What you see often in "Entourage" is the truth and its
fallout: with more money there are more problems.
What makes "Entourage" largely enjoyable is its recognition that stardom is its
own fool's gold fantasy. Yet this New York Four have already made it in L.A.
solely by surviving in a crazy industry for as long as they have. That is
its own success. They play up that success, that survival, turning it into
a stardom all its own, thriving on and stretching out that ephemeral glory and
status with equal parts sarcasm, inflated egos and starry-eyed splendor --
pitfalls and perils be damned.
Also with: Perrey Reeves, Rex Lee.
"Entourage" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for
pervasive language, strong sexual content, nudity and some drug use. Its running time is
one hour and 46 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2015. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
FOLLOW
MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
| PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME