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Hollywood Dreams
Rainbow Releasing

Hollywood Dreams reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 52 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 13 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content

Starring Tanna Frederick, Justin Kirk, Zack Norman, David Proval, Karen Black, and Melissa Leo

Hollywood Dreams follows the journey of a young woman from a small town in Iowa who arrives in Los Angeles deeply scarred by certain events in her childhood and profoundly obsessed with a life-long dream of achieving fame and stardom. (Rainbow Releasing)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Drama  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Henry Jaglom  
DIRECTED BY: Henry Jaglom  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 6, 2008 
Theatrical: May 18, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Frederick is the key to the movie and she's definitely an impressive new talent, someone who can really hold the screen and who delivers something striking or memorable in every scene.
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70
Village Voice Scott Foundas
The movie buzzes with the quirky rhythms of Jaglom's patented improvisational shooting style, and those of Frederick herself, whose go-for-broke zaniness recalls that of a former Jaglom ingenue, Karen Black.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Jaglom's scruffy style doesn't carry it through. He puts enough toxic insincerity on screen to singe, though.
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63
TV Guide Ken Fox
Once again brushing aside critical drubbings and public indifference, determined independent auteur Henry Jaglom follows up the abysmal "Let's Go Shopping" with something far better: an old-school Hollywood cautionary tale about -- what else? -- Hollywood.
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63
New York Post V.A. Musetto
A must for Jaglom fans. For other viewers, it will depend upon how much they can take of Jaglom's improvisational style and Frederick's over-the-top, tear-filled acting.
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60
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Knowing but never jaded, Hollywood Dreams is driven by Ms. Frederick's no-boundaries commitment to her broken character, a performance that's as startling as it is touching. In Mr. Jaglom's maverick hands, the appeal of illusion over reality is both fatal and irresistible.
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58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's unclear whether Frederick's an awful actress or a tremendous one pretending to be awful, but either way, it's hard to pity her nasal, pushy, babyish Iowa girl.
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50
Los Angeles Times Lael Loewenstein
It's a very mixed bag. When it's good, Hollywood Dreams is corrosively funny and unexpectedly poignant. And when it's bad, it's over-the-top bad.
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50
Variety Peter Debruge
Though it boasts slightly more narrative structure than his other work, Jaglom's script still serves as a catalyst for wild improvisation, suggesting the inside-jokey result was more fun to make than to watch.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Does a number of sly things.
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38
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It's not unusual for a Henry Jaglom film to fall into a black hole of narcissism, but he has outdone himself with his latest, a satire on Hollywood's unshakable self-absorption.
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38
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Meant to be an insider's tale, but it feels like it comes from the cinema of hangers-on.
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30
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Jaglom's 14th consists of his usual weakly improvised relationship comedy.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Shand S. gave it a10:
Simply a masterpiece of painful and hysterically funny truth revealing the dark underbelly of Hollywood skewered even more successfully than in The Player. A great female performance by its brilliant new star Tanna Frederick, who takes chances and goes places of unimaginable truth. A Brilliant, tragic comedy-drama.

Rachel C. gave it a10:
A brilliant, incisive and all-too-true look at the underside if the Cannes Film Festival and the ship of fools who gather there yearly to invent themselves and one another, Anyone who has been there will recognize the absolute truth of the characters played by these brilliant actors,writers, directors and wannabes.

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