Dreamers

Two childhood friends dream about escaping to Los Angeles to pursue their fame and fortune as filmmakers. A bittersweet satire about Hollywood's bottomless capacity for corruption, Dreamers follows the travails of two friends who leave their small Tennessee town for Tinseltown. Opening with a view of Hollywood through the lens of an Asian tourist's video camera accompanied by the movie-loving tourist's ramblings, the film cuts to Jefferson City, Tennessee, where two boys indulge in fantasies of fleeing to L.A. Several years later, one of those boys, Dave, is heading west to join his childhood friend Ethan in Hollywood. Ethan has spent the past five years trying unsuccessfully to finish his untitled film, scraping together a living as an Amway salesman and construction worker. Following his arrival, Dave finds brief work on a porn set before being fired, and, as part of an attempt to help Ethan find funding for his movie, loses his virginity to a lusty Beverly Hills housewife. —Rebecca Flint