"Tinseltown" is a misfired comedy about talentless show-biz wanna-bes
trying to hustle their way into the Hollywood movie game.
Based on the play "Self Storage" by director Tony Spiridakis and
Shem Bitterman, the no-budget movie indeed spends a lot of time inside
one of those high-rise, concrete structures where people lock up their
excess stuff. These warehouses make singularly ugly movie locations.
Anyway, on Christmas Eve, homeless would-be screenwriters Tiger
and Max (Tom Wood and Arye Gross) break in to one of the buildings
to spend the night. They're surprised to discover many other people
living in the cramped unit.
And wouldn't you know it? The storehouse manager, Cliff (Ron
Perlman) is a failed actor who reads one of the guys' awful scripts
and loves it. He also may be the serial killer who's terrorizing Hollywood
by dressing up his victims' corpses in silly costumes. But, hey, Tiger
and Max figure, that only makes their new friend a great source
of screenplay material.
Assorted other lowlifes - Kristy Swanson's amoral film-school careerist,
Joe Pantoliano's producer who sleeps in the park - try to horn in
on the action. Like the bad writers, they're all fairly well-acted,
but they never transcend the show-biz cliches they're built to represent.
The black comedy idea here, that these bums are so desperate they'll
let a killer run amok if it gets them a movie deal, isn't exactly
cutting edge, either.
We all saw "The Player." It was crueler. And smarter.
"Tinseltown's" one saving grace - and he is a substantial one -
is Perlman. He puts his imposing form to frightening good use here,
but he also exhibits the film's only compelling emotions and genuinely
cagey intelligence. While most of "Tinseltown" is lazy satire that
seems to have come from a dusty old trunk, Perlman's performance is
like a treasure found at a yard sale.
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[Note of interest] Ron Perlman originally played the role of Cliff
in "Self Storage," the stage version of "Tinseltown," which was
directed by the eminent actor, Dan Lauria, and performed at the Odyssey
Theatre, Los Angeles in May 1990. Joe Pantoliano also starred in the
stage version along with Tony Spiridakis and Richard Zavaglia.
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