While some people are professionally famous, others often suddenly find themselves thrust into the spotlight, a point observed by pop artist Andy Warhol who once commented that everyone would have their own individual fifteen minutes of fame at some point in their lives. Had he known of the recent media fixation of turning the most mundane subjects and people into household names for months at a time, however, he may just have raised that average.
Of course fame is fleeting and today's Monica Lewinsky has replaced yesterday's Donna Rice, Fawn Hall, and any number of other "celebrities" who were once more easily -- and sadly -- recognized by the average person than their given Congressional representatives.
Most Hollywood actors and actresses are certainly no strangers to the trappings of being famous, and while their popularity ebbs and flows throughout their careers, they're always on the public's radar, no matter how small a blip they might be at any given moment. As such, certain segments of the public -- most likely the same ones who groove on America's funniest home videos and all of those live "surveillance" Internet sites -- can't get enough of their favorite celebrities and probably wish they could peak in and see what they're doing every minute of the day.
That fanatical and nonstop fascination with celebrity fame and the power of the media are explored in director Ron Howard's latest film, "EDtv." While many will initially think the picture is quite similar to 1998’s brilliant "The Truman Show" -- especially since there are strong similarities between them and because Hollywood has a knack for releasing several similarly plotted films within a given twelve month period -- they are different enough in their approach of covering this topic that both are worth seeing.
Whereas "Truman" was a delightfully wicked, "Twilight Zone" type story where everything about a man's life is manufactured for a live TV production of which he only slowly becomes aware, "EDtv" focuses on "reality TV" where the character fully knows going in that his life's going to be televised.
While both films are enjoyable in their own right, this one's decidedly more lightweight and often funnier, but somewhat surprisingly isn't as scathing as one might expect considering its cast and director who must surely be intimately familiar with the pros and cons of being famous. It certainly doesn't have the depth of that Peter Weir/Jim Carrey film and might just suffer from being the second up to bat in telling this sort of story (although 1998’s "Armageddon" did far better than its predecessor, "Deep Impact," just going to prove that nobody knows anything about the public's reception of any given film).
Nonetheless, the film will probably best be remembered for Howard's use of a virtual who's who of Hollywood talent, as well as one of the more blatant -- but cleverly excusable -- uses of advertising seen in any of today's films where product placement is an easy -- if artistically questionable -- way to offset production costs.
The first makes the film more palatable to audiences as you're bound to find someone you like amongst the myriad of stars who appear throughout the film. Conversely, that also occasionally stops the film's momentum dead in its tracks as each new appearance of a well-known face distracts one's attention away from the proceedings.
Then there's the advertising -- some of it real, some of it presumably fictitious (such as that promoting local businesses -- although they could be real as well) that appears on nearly every shot of the EDtv broadcast. Howard has cleverly fashioned the use of such ads with his defense of them surely being that such a live, uncut TV show would need to run ads to raise revenue, and thus the presence of all those text ads at the bottom of the screen.
Of course it's doubtful most viewers would have even thought of that issue, but Howard gets away with it and probably generated a ton of income to help the film's bottom line. We would have preferred to see a more creative and entertaining use of fictitious ads in their place, however, that not only would have made the film funnier, but also more fun to watch and deserving of repeated viewings to catch all of the jokes. Alas, economics wins out over entertainment.
With a charming and personable cast and a setup that has plenty of potential, however, Howard ("Apollo 13," "Parenthood") -- who's no stranger to eliciting great films from both of those -- and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (who've written other Howard films such as "Night Shift" and "Splash") deliver a well-constructed, lightweight film. The jokes are plentiful, the characters are developed well enough for what's needed of them, and the chemistry between the leads works.
Matthew McConaughey ("A Time to Kill," "Contact") delivers an enjoyable and believable performance as the laid-back "everyman," while Jenna Elfman (TV's "Dharma & Greg") makes up for her appearance in the abominable "Krippendorf's Tribe." Delivering what's probably her best on-screen performance to date, Elfman is fun to watch and the chemistry between her and McConaughey always feels natural.
Supporting performances are good across the board. The always reliable Woody Harrelson ("The People vs. Larry Flynt," "The Hi-Lo Country") is good as the disgruntled brother, but his part unfortunately somewhat dries up in the film's second half. Ellen DeGeneres (TV's "Ellen") and Rob Reiner (of TV's "All in the Family" and director of "When Harry Met Sally" and "A Few Good Men") offset each other nicely as the TV executives, while Martin Landau ("Ed Wood," TV's "Mission: Impossible") is delightful as Ed's scooter-bound stepfather who isn't above making jokes at his own expense.
That's not even to mention Sally Kirkland, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Hurley, Clint Howard (Ron's brother who shows up in most of his films), Donny Most (Ron's costar on "Happy Days") and many others who populate the well-known cast.
Although some may complain that the film doesn't fully explore fame and the media, that its level of satire could have been stronger, or the fact that it's certainly predictable, Howard has fashioned it with enough charm, clever moments and winning performances that in the end, you don't really mind any of that or the fact that it's not quite as good as "The Truman Show."
As far as the DVD presentation itself, both the audio and video components are quite good, while the abundant supplemental material makes this another "must have" for hardcore DVD fans. There’s more than enough "goodies" to keep viewers transfixed for hours (the deleted scenes alone are about a third of a movie long), although the running audio commentary by the film’s screenwriters isn’t as insightful as one might hope (especially compared to the one featuring director Ron Howard) and features plenty of dead air time and/or plain goofing off instead of information. Nonetheless, the rest of the material should please fans of the film.
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