MOVIE REVIEW By Lucas Allen: Only the stars shine in ‘Hollywood’

Hollywood
(Netflix)

By Lucas Allen

Between shows like “American Horror Story” and “9-1-1,” Ryan Murphy has become this generation’s Norman Lear and Garry Marshall, creating popular and profound television entertainment. His shows combine genuine drama, well-written characters, and envelope-pushing moments that made viewers tune in week after week. Making the move from FX to Netflix, the multi-Emmy winner creates what’s sure to be his most provocative series yet with “Hollywood.” Basically, it’s another colorful, revisionist look at California’s Dream Machine through the eyes of individuals trying to make it big.
It’s the late-1940s, and Hollywood is facing some inevitable changes after the end of the second World War. Jack Castello (David Corenswet) is a struggling up-and-coming actor trying to support his pregnant wife, Henrietta (Maude Apatow), while dreaming of stardom. His only means of work is at a gas station whose owner Ernie West (Dylan McDermott) also runs a secret sex trade operation. Jack’s luck gets better when he meets a young writer, Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope), who wrote a script about the suicide death of actress Peggy Entwistle. A young director, Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss), trying to get a film made for actress Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec) is handed the “Peg” script along with his actress girlfriend Camille Washington (Laura Harrier).
With the movie being greenlit by production boss Dick Samuels (Joe Mantello) at Ace Studios, Jack gets some acting lessons from Ellen Kincaid (Holland Taylor) before being screen tested for the leading man role against a young Rock Hudson (Jake Picking), who’s being groomed by talent agent Henry Willson (Jim Parsons). Another young actress, Claire Wood (Samara Weaving), the daughter of studio head Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner) and his wife Avis (Patti LuPone), screen tests for the leading role. The title is changed to “Meg” during a script overhaul, and the role given to Camille.
Soon enough, many obstacles and scandalous secrets threaten the picture from ever getting seen.
The makers of this seven-episode limited series went through a good deal of recreating what Hollywood was like during the post-war era. The production values are top notch, as you might expect from a Ryan Murphy TV series. In fact, the visual appeal is the best thing the show was going for.
The entire series deals with issues of homosexuality, racism and ageism within the confines of the Hollywood system. However, most of the dialogue comes off as mouthpieces for these issues, and it starts becoming annoyingly derivative by the third episode. It’s understandable that the show deals with these characters and the obstacles they had to overcome to achieve stardom, but it all felt like history rewritten by a middle school teenager.
By comparing this to a more recent revisionist Hollywood story like Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” that movie was at least genuine, fun and more interesting in its story and characters about a moment of changing times. With this show, each episode is written so over-the-top about its own imagined version of the actors and other personalities involved that it becomes laughably ridiculous. Not to mention, the last episode, which is supposed to be about having a Hollywood ending worthy of the Golden Age classics, goes overlong and makes the previous six episodes felt like a snail’s pace to go through.
Still, you can’t take away from the show having the actors work hard to the best to their abilities. All the young actors each give some fine performances especially while working with dialogue sounding too ripe to be realistic. Among the supporting cast, both McDermott and Parsons eat up their scenes like wolves eating deer in the wilderness. There are interesting guest star moments sprinkled throughout, like filmmaker Reiner being very funny, Mira Sorvino as an aging actress and Queen Latifah bringing emotion and wisdom to her portrayal of Oscar-winning actress Hattie McDaniel.
Though admirable, “Hollywood” ends up being both shallow and overwrought in envisioning their own version of La La Land. Maybe another run through on the scripts could’ve been more suffice. Murphy has already made a much better limited series about the subject which is “Feud: Bette & Joan,” and it’s worth more of your time than this inferior product.
THE MOVIE’s RATING: TV-MA (for sexuality, nudity, language, and smoking)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2 Stars (Out of Four)