Gary Dretzka
Noah Forrest
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Douglas Pratt
Ray Pride

Only in Hollywood -- perhaps, only in Variety -- could any reporter declare with a straight face that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino will soon team on the $60 million "indie production," Righteous Kill. This news was sent out as a bulletin by the trade’s Internet service, from Cannes, presumably within seconds of up-linking photos of Jerry Seinfeld sliding down a cable wearing a bee costume.

One hopes a more scrupulous editor will have caught this outlandish overstatement -- the Hollywood Reporter employed the more precise, "independently financed" -- in time for the paper’s morning editions. It’s difficult enough to parse the difference between the Spirit Awards and the Oscars, without Variety raising the ante on bona fide indies another $30 million, or so.

It’s possible that all of Henry Jaglom’s films put together didn’t cost $60 million to produce, cast or distribute. While his combined catalog may not have recouped anywhere near that amount, however, neither did any single title stand to lose what Righteous Kill could if one or both of the stars pulled out, or it tanked for lack of interest. The presence of Pacino and De Niro, in Heat, didn’t exactly trigger a stampede to the nation’s box offices, after all.

Jaglom’s new romantic dramedy, Hollywood Dreams, fits comfortably within the same groove as the16 other films he’s written and directed in the last 36 years.

The familiar ensemble cast is allowed plenty of space to improvise and show off individual acting chops. The characters are given ample time to expound on their personal traumas, insecurities and triumphs, no matter how piddling they might seem to anyone outside of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills or Manhattan. Sometimes these same people appear to be enjoying listening to their friends expound on their traumas, insecurities and triumphs, or, as is more likely in L.A., pretend to be listening.

Marriages are important in Jaglom movies. Then, too, so are divorce rituals, serendipitous meetings on a street and chance encounters at a party. Dining out and shopping have occupied many hours of screen time, and children have become increasingly more prominent in the years since the 66-year-old auteur became a parent himself,

Critics will argue, as they always have, that "Hollywood Dreams" is overly self-indulgent, the cinematography and sound could be better, and the acting is too loosey-goosey. The vast majority of reviews will take the safe, well-trot route, by recommending it only to his loyal fans (a.k.a., "cult-like following"), while advising newcomers that "Jaglom’s films aren’t for everybody." Whose are, though?

Unlike most of Jaglom’s oeuvre, however, Hollywood Dreams can boast of a recognizable narrative. Indeed, the story will resonate with anyone who’s heard -- and believed -- that Lana Turner was discovered sitting on a stool at Schwab's drugstore.

In its depiction of industry insiders who are paid handsomely to lie for a living, though, the film also provides a needed corrective to that sort of myth. These days, the odds against being discovered anywhere other than a stage, fashion runway or rock concert are right up there with being struck with the same lightning bolt that made Turner a star. In Hollywood Dreams the lucky leading lady from Boonies becomes the exception that proves the rule.

The wide-eyed ingénue from Iowa is played by Tanna Frederick, herself a newcomer to the spotlight, if not the grind of everyday show business. Every bit as exuberant, optimistic and hungry for stardom as her wanna-be character, Margie Chizek, Frederick also resembles her in that both hail from Mason City and both are attempting to follow in the footsteps of little Frances Gumm of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who would go on to become Judy Garland.

The auburn-tressed Frederick, who could pass for a grown-up version of Pippi Longstocking, began her life in the theater at age 9. She graduated with honors from the University of Iowa in both Political Science and Theater Arts, as well as being named valedictorian of her Liberal Arts graduating class and president of Phi Beta Kappa. Somewhere along the line, the grand-daughter of an Iowa pig farmer also found time to serve as homecoming queen.

"It was more for extracurricular activities and grades," Frederick cautioned. "I was the antithesis of a homecoming queen."

Everything pointed to a career in theater for Frederick. She even did advanced scene study with Iowa Summer Rep director Mary Beth Easley in New York, where Uta Hagen offered her a place to stay.

Much to the chagrin of her fellow thespians, though, the 5-foot-7 actress decided to stay on the left side of the Mississippi and, after graduation, head directly to southern California.

"I took a lot of flack from the theater people," she said. "But, I had a plan. I wanted to go straight to L.A. and dive in head first."

Some dreams unspool according to plan, but most don’t. After finally making it to Los Angeles and her first commercial job -- her car had broken down in Colorado, and the gig sucked -- Frederick spent the next three years scratching for serious work. Failing that, she joined the legion of out-of-work performers waiting tables and doing caretaker assignments. For a while, she even was a "cigarette girl."

Finally, she landed a stage role in N. Richard Nash’s Echoes. A friend who had recently worked for Jaglom convinced Frederick that he was the kind of guy who would cast her based on the contents of a letter. On a whim, she sent a three-page, single-spaced letter to the bowler-hatted filmmaker, who she didn’t know, extolling the virtues of a film, Déjà Vu, she hadn’t seen.

He took the bait, however, and quizzed Frederick about what she wrote. Then, he screened one of his movies to see what she had to say about it. She must have passed the test, because Jaglom began giving her work performing tasks that ranged from placing promotional material on windshields for " Festival in Cannes," to offering him advice on projects and providing him with first-hand accounts of what it’s like to be an actor starving for an opportunity to prove themselves. Some of these stories would define her character in "Hollywood Dreams."

"Henry’s a big BS’er, himself," Frederick observed. "He lies his way into great situations."

As luck would have it, Jaglom had in the back of his mind an urge to adapt his 1971 film, The Safe Place, into a stage play.

"He gave me the script and told me to do it as a showcase scene for acting class," Frederick recalled. "I took the play and shopped it around to 12 different theaters. Eventually, I found a producer and got the funding.

"It premiered at the Skylight Theater in fall, 2003, and I ended up starring in it for four months. Henry came to every performance."

Jaglom, who, at the time, was working on Going Shopping, was impressed enough to offer her the lead role in Hollywood Dreams. Frederick spent the next year and a half preparing for the role, mostly by listening closely to the stories of her fellow aspiring actors and discovering other ways to mold her deceptively complex character.

For all her potential as a leading lady, Margie Chizek remains haunted by events in her childhood that could cause her to unwind at almost any given moment.

On the surface, she’s a thoroughly modern gal, who studies the martial arts and is comfortable around people who would be considered freakish back home. Inside, though, she’s teetering on the edge of an emotional precipice.

After volunteering to do a scene in a movie being shot by some neighborhood children, she can barely get her lines out. Adding insult to recent misery, the pre-teen director literally boots her off the set.

As a coping mechanism, Chizek adopts the persona of a character right out of A Star Is Born, ll About Eve and What Price Hollywood? She may not be able to handle dialogue in a home movie, but she can deliver lines from 60-year-old movies without missing a beat.

Very early in the movie, Chizek scores a hat trick by being kicked out of her apartment, having her car give out on her and blowing an audition. Shortly after the depressing encounter with the young filmmakers, however, Chizek literally bumps into an agent (Jaglom mainstay, Zack Norman) who‘s walking his dog along Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica.

In true fairy-tale fashion, he invites her to the wonderful hilltop home he shares with his lover (David Proval, in a very non-characteristic ), who also manages the affairs of the handsome leading man (Justin Kirk, from Weeds) crashing in their guest house. The young man is enjoying a fine career, even though his success rests on his remaining a closet heterosexual. Also joining the festivities are some other Jaglom regulars: Karen Black, who plays a gargoyle-like acting coach; Seymour Cassell, as a paranoid producer; and Melissa Leo, as Chizek’s protective Aunt Bee.

Bee’s afraid her star-struck niece might be wound a bit too tight for Hollywood. She’s afraid that the affair she’s enjoying with the closeted actor will end badly, and devastate her in the process. Imagine what auntie would think if she knew, as we do, that Margie masturbates to a picture of she and her boyfriend that found its way onto the cover of the L.A. Times Calendar section.

Fortunately, for Margie, anyway, Jaglom isn’t about to leave her hanging at wit’s end.

Last November, Hollywood Dreams debuted at the AFI Fest, and has been shown at several other festival since then. It opened on a few dozen screens on Friday, and likely will stay on the arthouse circuit for as long as the director’s "cult-like following" will sustain it. It almost certainly will find a more lucrative home in the DVD market, where several of Jaglom’s early films recently landed.

The most unusual of the festival took place last month in Mason City. The Iowa Independent Film Festival was the brainchild of Frederick, whose Hawkeye roots never stay hidden for very long.

In addition to Hollywood Dreams, the festival featured screenings of more than 50 films, including some Jaglom titles, and appearances by Proval, Black, Ron Vignone and the filmmaker. Not surprisingly, considering the guest of honor, the top award handed out at the festival was named for Orson Welles.

In what someday may make a fascinating movie of its own, Frederick stuffed the Hollywood invaders into a Navy blue limousine and gave them a tour of local farms, including one belonging to a relative.

"We arrived two hours after a calf was born," Frederick said, barely containing a laugh. "Henry even held a baby pig."

Let’s see if De Niro and Pacino can top that.

May 18, 2007

- Gary Dretzka

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