Fame

Showing nightly at the Loma (9:15) for the week of October 23

Someone get this director a tripod! Sorry, had to get that out. For some reason Tancharoen seems to think a jittery hand held camera is a good replacement for actual frame composition. And that's the least of this film's problems. I've never seen the original film (directed by the incomparable Alan Parker), and have only seen a handful of the tv shows, but Tancharoen assumed if he anchored his cast with a couple of decent actors (much as the original show did with Albert Hague and Debbie Allen), everything else would fall into place. Someone needs to explain to him that a film actually needs a story, and some character development. He trades both in for far too many scenes of twenty-somethings standing in for high schoolers either acting, performing music, or performing other "spontaneous" art. It all comes together as a cinematic debacle that needs to be avoided by everyone (especially fans of the original series).

We are stuck following so many different characters, engaged in so many inconsequential interactions, it's just painful. Of the ten or so characters being followed while attending the New York High School of Performing Arts, perhaps two create any sort of impression (Panabaker and Naughton). That left me confused about the rest: is that the tormented dance student who will attempt suicide, or the boyfriend of the girl who likes to act? Grammer acts like he just walked off the set of a George Romero zombie film, and Mullally looks as if she is staring off camera at her next paycheck in every scene. All the characters are new, with Debbie Allen playing a new role (as Ms. Simms, not Lydia Grant from the original series). Having Allen in there was a nod to the original series, not a reprisal of her original role. The film attempts to give the feeling of following all the students through their whole high school career (breaking up the movie according to auditions, followed by each school year). This is especially laughable when your class of what should be 14 year old high school freshman look more like juniors in college. To make matter worse, the differentiation between school years looked more like jumps of days, not a year. The actors look no different, don't dress different, don't act different.

I've got to end this review here. It was an awful movie, stay away at all costs. The hand held camera scenes were headache inducing. It's just not interesting to replace actual story and character development with poorly choreographed dance and music numbers. I could go on, but that would be a waste of both of our time. No potential here: don't take a date to it (you may not get another one after this), don't watch it, don't pick up the ultra limited edition, unrated with 5 hours of additional footage DVD. Here's to hoping Tancharoen goes back to directing reality TV shows. But just in case he doesn't, I'm sending him a tripod for Christmas!

Editor's note: why is it that when Socorro finally gets a film that isn't a salute to sensational violence, it has to be awful?! I won't be going (unless my wife forces me); I may instead go see "Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs" at the earlier showing a the Loma.