2008 Woodie Awards
American Dreamz: That's Dreamz With a "Z"
Katie Pederson
Issue date: 4/28/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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In a country that wages war for all the wrong reasons, led by an inept president who is far behind on current events and where more people watch and vote for the next pop idol then they do for the president, anything is fair game. Or at least that's what the Simon Cowell meats George Bush satire on American culture, American Dreamz, would lead you to believe.
From writer and director Paul Weitz of the American Pie trilogy, American Dreamz is an unabashed slam at the American way of life, George Bush, the current government, and the American Idol television craze. The film begins as President Staton (Dennis Quaid, In Good Company, The Rookie) has just been re-elected after a difficult campaign that has succeeded in continuing to hide his rather uneducated and inept tendencies at office. Completely controlling his every move, Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man, The Boondock Saints) suggests that Staton brushes up on some current events by reading the newspaper. Upon reading an article on the hit television series American Dreamz, the normally depressed Staton becomes intrigued and tries to work out a way to appear on the final episode of the show.
Then there is Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, Briget Jones' Diary, Love Actually), the charismatic, manipulative and shallow Simon Cowell clone who produces, hosts, and judges the show. Tweed is becoming increasingly agitated with the show and having to find the right "faces" for his contestants in order to drive ratings. Enter this season's hopeful, the Ohio karaoke princess Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, Saved!, A Walk to Remember) who will stop at nothing to be a Dreamz winner, spurred on by her fanatical mother Martha (Jennifer Coolidge, Legally Blonde, Best in Show). Sally dumps her small town boyfriend and heads to Hollywood to win fame only to find an extremely calculated (yet horribly untalented) opponent in Omer Obeidi (Sam Golzari, Closer, The Invisible Man) a show tune fanatic who is forced on the show by his terrorist extremist family with the intent of making it to the finals and smuggling a bomb on stage with the Omer to blow up the President. Omer doesn't so much like the suicide bomber part, but sings and dances his way to the finals to compete against Sally irregardless.
Overall, this movie is a wonderfully hilarious mock of American culture. The cast is jam packed with talent, even including cameos from such Hollywood notables as Chris Klein (American Pie, Election) and Marcia Gay Harden (Meet Joe Black, Welcome to Mooseport). Grant plays an amazing self-centered ego maniac in Tweed and showcases the same biting wit that Cowell lashes at his contestants with. Moore mirrors this same passionless and conniving character in Sally, playing the bad girl up to an extreme while Golzari steals the show with his animated and hilarious portrayal of the forced-into-terrorism Omer.
Be warned, this film is only a satire, but it gives a biting criticism of American life. Perhaps at times Weitz tells it truer then we'd like to hear, but regardless you'll be thoroughly entertained as long as you can stop and laugh not only at the staunch similarities between American Dreamz and real life, but take a step back and laugh at yourself in the process as well.
From writer and director Paul Weitz of the American Pie trilogy, American Dreamz is an unabashed slam at the American way of life, George Bush, the current government, and the American Idol television craze. The film begins as President Staton (Dennis Quaid, In Good Company, The Rookie) has just been re-elected after a difficult campaign that has succeeded in continuing to hide his rather uneducated and inept tendencies at office. Completely controlling his every move, Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man, The Boondock Saints) suggests that Staton brushes up on some current events by reading the newspaper. Upon reading an article on the hit television series American Dreamz, the normally depressed Staton becomes intrigued and tries to work out a way to appear on the final episode of the show.
Then there is Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, Briget Jones' Diary, Love Actually), the charismatic, manipulative and shallow Simon Cowell clone who produces, hosts, and judges the show. Tweed is becoming increasingly agitated with the show and having to find the right "faces" for his contestants in order to drive ratings. Enter this season's hopeful, the Ohio karaoke princess Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, Saved!, A Walk to Remember) who will stop at nothing to be a Dreamz winner, spurred on by her fanatical mother Martha (Jennifer Coolidge, Legally Blonde, Best in Show). Sally dumps her small town boyfriend and heads to Hollywood to win fame only to find an extremely calculated (yet horribly untalented) opponent in Omer Obeidi (Sam Golzari, Closer, The Invisible Man) a show tune fanatic who is forced on the show by his terrorist extremist family with the intent of making it to the finals and smuggling a bomb on stage with the Omer to blow up the President. Omer doesn't so much like the suicide bomber part, but sings and dances his way to the finals to compete against Sally irregardless.
Overall, this movie is a wonderfully hilarious mock of American culture. The cast is jam packed with talent, even including cameos from such Hollywood notables as Chris Klein (American Pie, Election) and Marcia Gay Harden (Meet Joe Black, Welcome to Mooseport). Grant plays an amazing self-centered ego maniac in Tweed and showcases the same biting wit that Cowell lashes at his contestants with. Moore mirrors this same passionless and conniving character in Sally, playing the bad girl up to an extreme while Golzari steals the show with his animated and hilarious portrayal of the forced-into-terrorism Omer.
Be warned, this film is only a satire, but it gives a biting criticism of American life. Perhaps at times Weitz tells it truer then we'd like to hear, but regardless you'll be thoroughly entertained as long as you can stop and laugh not only at the staunch similarities between American Dreamz and real life, but take a step back and laugh at yourself in the process as well.
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