it’s a documentary shot since 1999 by the director. he started shooting the life of his 5 roommates, all looking for fame and fortune as actors in los angeles. in the next 10 years, 3 of them raise to the top and eventually all fall more or less miserably out of stardom. one of them is still out there looking for it.

since then the director first created a docu-movie which eventually destroyed as a result of the opposition to it by the establishment, worried about the negative effect on the trio careers, when they were still riding the wave.

now, 2009, having the trio fallen out of grace, they director tries again to issue this material. although he destroyed the movie, he still conveniently had the original material, so he has re-edited in this new version.

so what this is , it’s the story of three spoiled brats who get  a big break in the movie industry, they also get some money, and they piss it all away.

one become a recluse actor of lesser roles; one mixes work in the industry with charity work for the homeless and the third one ends up bankrupt, sleeping on a friend’s couch and still under the false impression that plastic surgery will improve his chances of a career as a big actor.

I have felt no sympathy for this bunch of hollywood wankers who had it all and did not have the discipline and the talent to hold on to it. This is what happens when undeserving little people get  a break, probably stolen to more deserving hard working talented people.

but this is what happens in this time of xfactors and other easy quick way to fame and fortune. now people are so lazy and so in a rush that they no longer want to pay a price of hard work, education, study, low paid parts etc.. no, they want to go straight to the top.

thankfully a sort of darwinism seems to apply also in the world of entertainment and the weak , the undeserving, eventually will show their weakness and fail.

when the director during the q&a session that followed the screening hinted at the hard life of actors in los angeles, i could only think of indonesian children making nike shoes, indian kids making whatever is that we make them make and I also kept thinking of people who made movies under real forbidding conditions, like a fascist military junta in south america. there is hardship and hardship. go get a real job, seems to be the only decent thing. perhaps the director should change the title to “my big break; how i should have gone and get a real job”.

seen as part of the raindance festival

link to the movie website