Wishing for a Dream
USA 2016
produced by Gabriel Campisi, Judy Kim (executive) for Traplight Media
directed by Jared Cohn
starring Sara Malakul Lane, Jared Cohn, Nicole Alexandra Shipley, Gabriel Campisi, David Michael Latt, Richard Switzer, Andi Fine, and the voices of Samantha Stewart, John Mehrer, David Gere, Steve Hanks
written by Jared Cohn, songs by Harmonious Fits, Digital Aether, Kenn Medeiros, Kevin Murphy, The Brothers Rock, Whiskey Reverb
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Mika (Sara Malakul Lane) and Louis (Jared Cohn) are the typical
Hollywood couple who haven't made it yet: She's an actress who's rushing
from one audition to the next while he's a director who tries to get his
movie financed - and more and more has to come to terms with the fact he
might not be able to cast Mika in the lead ... But Mika has other
problems at the moment: She can't sleep, that audition she thinks will
change her life is only hours away, her best friend (Nicole Alexandra
Shipley) supplies her with drugs that she's not supposed to take, and she
has body image issues just because ... well, because it's Hollywood, real
women would kill to have a body like hers. But while dreams are made in
Hollywood, dreams don't usually come true in the same speck of land - and
if they do, not the way you expect them to ... The
Asylum co-head David Michael Latt has an amusing cameo as himself
in this one. Wishing for a Dream is a film that will
probably be too close to home for everybody who has ever tried to succeed
in Hollywood, no matter whether they ultimately succeeded or not.
Basically it's a film about the very struggles one has to go through to
fulfill one's dream in the city of dreams, and the ridiculous demands that
come with it, including feeling insecure about one's perfect body, letting
producers slam one's great script for "marketing purposes" and
the like, plus the after-effects that come with this, like addiction to
all sorts of drugs (even legal ones), weird lifestyle choices and the
like. Now truth to be told, the basic narrative of Wishing for a
Dream is not structured particularly well, it feels more like a bunch
of Hollywood anecdotes strung together ... and yet the film totally works,
because its characters feel real, especially with all their flaws and
shortcomings, the story, while episodic, is 100% believable, and the film
manages to shed an eye on the not-so-glamourous side of Hollywood without
just going the sensationalist route, instead getting the emotional side of
things down. A really cool film, actually!
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