Delirious

Toby (Michael Pitt) had been living for awhile off the street. He is running away from some sort of abuse when he meets Les (Steve Buscemi). Les is a papparazzi and at first wants no part of Toby. Soon Les likes having a guy to talk to and brag a bit about his work when in reality Les is just barely getting by. So Toby becomes Les's assistant on a job working the "Music Awards." Toby gets caught up in an entourage of popstar K'harma (Alison Lohman) and soon the two strike up a relationship. Toby finds his friendship tested as he wants to follow his love, while not losing his best friend.

Mostly this is the same song and dance about a loser who find someone who looks up to him. Toby has no other friends so he looks past the parasitic nature of his collarboration with Les. A talent director (Gina Gershon) soon "discovers" Toby on the basis of his tryst with K'harma. The story takes a dark turn later... that maybe doesn't completely jive with the tone of the earlier film. It seems from the convo with writer/director Tom DiCillo and Buscemi accompanying the film might shed some light on that. Some of the script was toned down and perhaps that is why it comes out of nowhere.

DiCillo and Buscemi first collaborated in Living in Oblivion back in the early 90's which was the toast of film fests everywhere. He has since whiffed on many a fastball with the failures of The Real Blonde and Double Whammy. Clearly DiCillo knows what is ripe for satire in show business. The problem with Delirious is that the jokes aren't all that funny and doesn't go for the jugular. Buscemi has just done something similar with Interview - which takes on a budding actress being interviewed by a "real" journalist.

What really works for Delirious is the cast. Buscemi is always spot on so put that aside. Michael Pitt and Alison Lohman are both at the top of the list in terms of good young actors. They both can bring a realness to the characters that you just do not get with most of the souless names coming out of Hollywood. Both Pitt in The Dreamers and Lohman in Where the Truth Lies, have staked their claim in the role of serious actors. Here they get the tone of the film and try to give more than the perfunctory performance called for from the script. You actually want these two people to end up with each other.

75/100

Interview

Steve Buscemi was approached to help the remake of a Dutch film of the same name as a tribute to the slain filmmaker. It was to be one of three films to be remade in American as the final wishes of Director Theo Van Gogh. Buscemi had mostly directed a few indies and some episodes of TV (The Sopranos , OZ)so this seems easily in his wheel house.

Buscemi plays Pierre Peters, a political writer for a mag, that gets assigned to cover a b-list soap style actress Katya (Sienna Miller). The two are set to have an interview together that gets off to an odd start. Soon after the two retire back to Katya's flat.

What follows is much like a play with just the two main characters after that. The two play a cat and mouse game that wants to be something clever, but never quite builds to anything significant. You do get two very capable actors taking lots of verbal jabs. And I'm shocked to say this, but Miller steals the show from director Buscemi. Although, I'm sure you could argue that was what he intended. I've seen one other film Buscemi directed film in 1996's Tree's Lounge. Both of these films felt light on story. You can see the attraction to the simple setups and stories, but I want more from this fine actor.

60/100

Paris, je t'aime

Paris, je t'aime is a collection of short films by some very famous directors and some not so famous ones. All of which tell stories involving Paris. Some of them we find out at the end, connect in a very loose way... while others are out there on their own.

To try and tell the plot of 20 would be fall too much. So let me tell you my favorite two of the bunch. The first of which is about an American actress (Natalie Portman) who falls for a blind man (Melchior Beslon) directed by Tom Tykwer (Perfume). The visuals are spectacular while giving you an entire story of their relationship in 5 minutes. Absolutely a talented director.

My second involves a young couple (Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer) on vacation. They are visiting a famous cemetary with several notable people buried there. The woman fears that her fiancee won't make her laugh and doesn't share her love of Oscar Wilde. The segment was directed by the very talented Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election).

There are a few other famous actors including Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Olga Kurylenko ( Hitman playing my favorite prostitute), and Nick Nolte. The Coehn brothers direct a short, Wes Craven, and so does the gifted Latino Alfonso Cuaron.

Some work, many don't. The overall impression left on me was that under an overall director that his could have worked much better. Too many of the stories just aren't that interesting. Thankfully, you only had to wait 5 mins for a chance at something better.

60/100