It wasn’t long ago when the American Dream was a lot more straightforward; whether it was beautiful and realistic or an illusion to exploit the working class, the basic idea was that “all [people] are created equal” with the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” through hard work people could become better versions of themselves and achieve contentment and a good life.
The latest indie crime comedy named Dreaming Hollywood shows how distorted the Dream has become over time. In the past, people used to just want a decent life for themselves and their family as well as an opportunity to prove their abilities in this world governed by meritocracy; now people desire money, fame, wealth and happiness every second of life.
The internet’s effect of making everyone feel like they can be a star is what makes people trade possible dreams for impossible stardom and ‘followers’ on social media. It wasn’t meant to be that way. Technically speaking James Truslow Adams coined the term ‘American dream’ in his 1931 book The Epic of America. He refers to it as:
Formerly known as Fade Out Ray, Frank Martinez’s film Dreaming Hollywood turns American Dreams into nightmares. These characters confuse growing “to the fullest development as man and woman” with drug abuse, power-based fantasies, material wealth accumulation and sex parties. Contemporary Western man wrongly understands “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as “fame, fortune, and guarantee of eternal bliss.”
This is a desperate film where everyone is looking to get ahead — Detective Duque (Link Ruiz) joins some dirty cops to advance his career in the force; sociopath Rudy Aquanikkio (the mononymous Eliot) wants to grow his drug empire and take out his boss; Maureen (Madelyn Allen), a prostitute who wants nothing more than pop stardom plus escape from poverty will perform any kind of degenerate act for success; and slimy Shawnathan (Brian Hanford) and Charlotte (Yilin Wang), who are planning to overthrow their godfather boss in order to take over his business.
Then there’s Ray Belfi, poor, deranged Ray Belfi, played by Turk Matthews. Ray inhabits a squalid world of prostitution, drugs and murder populated by the aforementioned scumbags. He is an unworldly romantic obsessed with Maureen and dreams of becoming a famous screenwriter; called The Dog’s Meow, this ‘screenplay script’ as well as ‘plea’—he means pitch—are about an anthropomorphic dog who hangs out with cats and learns their ways. This gets rejected countless times by different studios before it is stolen, so that it can be made into a horrible film deliberately meant to financially ruin his boss by Shawnathan and Charlotte (in other words, The Producers).
Initially the only decent human being in Dreaming Hollywood was Ray whereas morally corrupt individuals living in his city took advantage of him at every opportunity. His early years were similar. Both he and his mother were abused by his father while flashbacks show the boy with holes for eyes on a paper bag over his head and emotionally traumatized. When his screenplay is stolen from him and produced it marks the beginning point of Ray’s PTSD which then leads to him going on a deadly spree throughout the city streets.
If that sounds ominous, it is less so than the rest of the film which is pitch-black. Dreaming Hollywood is a bitter, mocking and nihilistic film about its characters and audience. Most of the time, horrible things are not explicitly shown but are only hinted at and this is enough to elicit horror. As an example, a woman has her teeth removed for easy oral rape. Pedophilia, sex trafficking, hard drug use, infanticide, domestic abuse – these and more can be found in this menagerie of suffering. Although it tries to be funny- as advertised in the Quentin Tarantino way- ultimately it’s just depressing.
Though not particularly comical some character traits are so weird and unpredictable as to instantly lodge themselves into memory in a Lynchian way. Menacing laughter arises out of nowhere; people start dancing spontaneously; violence bursts out unexpectedly; actors receive such eccentric instructions that their characters turn out very strange albeit despicable Turk Matthews’ Ray plays the straight man among a cast of slapstick maniacs living in nightmare world.
The rage behind Dreaming Hollywood probably comes from a real place; it could have been an outlet for frustration on part of those who made it together. According to Turk Matthews “I think it was just an experience of a manifestation of hard work over the years. It became a muse for [director] Frankie Martinez and me to display our talents that haven’t had a vehicle to be seen due to a highly competitive field. There are many talented people who never have their one chance”.
There’s so much talent here though! Martinez does well with Tarantino-style vignettes where each scene feels like almost its own film. Such as Ray’s gloomy filthy apartment which resembles an RV parked on sand surrounded by nice mansions lit up dimly brothel etc – all these create separate worlds.
The story itself however gets sidetracked by too many moving parts with numerous characters and subplots not mentioned here. On the other hand, even though it’s a good story of Ray’s shitty script being stolen then manufactured by drug empire conniving members, too much complexity in various plots distracts attention from this since Martinez seems to have put all his ideas into it thinking that it was his only chance for success. This film wants too much of what new American Dream could not give but doesn’t know how to go about getting.
However, it looks amazing and has great music throughout. Dreaming Hollywood features contemporary music such as rap songs and popular songs about money, power, sex and drugs. Anchored by X Moves (a song by late DMX with legendary bassist Bootsy Collins) the use of current music in the movie demonstrates the distortedness of 21st century American dream.
Contrasted with this is some lighter more playful music including a lovely Spanish song which Ray sings along with at the brothel while dancing (one of the few times when he appears alive). The difference between musical styles here certainly says something about Ray as opposed to those hustlers and scumbags around him.
Ray’s bloody vengeful spree at the end of the film shows an exaggerated outcome of taking the American Dream to its illogical conclusion by risking one’s all on a quest for triumph and stardom. Ray loses everything when Maureen reveals she just feels sorry for him, and his script is stolen, thus making him awaken from seeking his dreams.
It is a mere illusion that has disappeared (and dreaming can only be done with closed eyes), leaving behind anger and bitterness against falsehoods, the system and those who are mere carriers of them both. To some extent, Ray’s revenge mirrors that of Dreaming Hollywood as well as its creators; it is an anguished callous cry against the Hollywood Dream Machine.
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