It's not as sharp as his indie gems from the mid-1990s, but the thing's packed with bright performances and unique characters, which is what DiCillo does best.
Delirious (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Synopsis: Director Tom DiCillo scrutinizes the entertainment industry once again (see also: LIVING IN OBLIVION and THE REAL BLONDE) with DELIRIOUS. The film stars Steve Buscemi as a scuzzy New York City-based paparazzi photographer named Les, and Michael Pitt as a homeless wannabe thespian named... Director Tom DiCillo scrutinizes the entertainment industry once again (see also: LIVING IN OBLIVION and THE REAL BLONDE) with DELIRIOUS. The film stars Steve Buscemi as a scuzzy New York City-based paparazzi photographer named Les, and Michael Pitt as a homeless wannabe thespian named Toby. Toby moves into Les's squalid Lower East Side apartment and works, for free, as his assistant. But it doesn't take long before Toby's career is on the up after he's invited to an exclusive party by Les. Toby meets casting director Dana (Gina Gershon) at the party, and subsequently meets pop star K'harma (Alison Lohman). Dana helps Toby to realize his silver screen dreams, while K'harma becomes his celebrity girlfriend. Unfortunately Les, who becomes apoplectic with rage at this sudden upturn in his protege's life, decides to stalk Toby and, fueled by bitterness and jealousy, plots to bring his career to an abrupt halt. Buscemi gives a wonderful performance as the cranky Les, perfectly portraying a self-loathing New Yorker whose brash exterior masks genuine insecurity and grave personal disappointment. Pitt, Lohman, and Gershon also deserve praise for the way they inhabit the kind of characters that run rife throughout the film and music industries. DELIRIOUS further develops various ideas from DiCillo's previous work, particularly THE REAL BLONDE, and his oeuvre is slowly developing into a fascinating treatise on the love/hate relationship he grudgingly endures with the entertainment industry. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman, Gina Gershon, Elvis Costello
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 5, 2008
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Stereo - English
Reviews
The film isn't as broadly funny as the previous DiCillo-Buscemi collaboration Living in Oblivion, but its outsiders peering in have an uncomfortable resonance.
DiCillo's themes are loyalty and friendship and betrayal and redemption.
DiCillo hasn't lost his gift for artfully skewering both those basking in fame's spotlight and those lurking in the shadows, while still finding a measure of affection for all of them.
For all its time-worn situations and observations, Delirious has a truth or two to impart about our lust for celebrities.
This satirical comedy is a connoisseur's delight, with Steve Buscemi in top form as the runt of a paparazzo who tries to exploit a homeless young man.
As always, Buscemi masters his portrayal of needy desperation, but he still makes Les admirable for his capacity to go with the flow.
DiCillo is ultimately grounded in the eccentric, awkward relationship
With Delirious, writer-director Tom DiCillo has crafted a wonderfully giddy meditation on the nature of fame, the people who sell it and those doing the buying, and their mutually parasitic dependence on each other.
The jokes are sparse and predictable, and the storytelling is, too. But Buscemi and Gershon have great fun with their roles, and Pitt is strangely agreeable about the whole thing.
The movie is a provocative little pleasure, and the gleefully vile Buscemi and dreamy-eyed Pitt make a fine 21st-century odd couple.
DiCillo's spot-on writing -- and the exceptional performances by Buscemi and Pitt -- creates a touching and vivid friendship that stabilizes the film.
DiCillo finds comedy in the tragic, depth in the shallowness, and surprises in the cliché
A great romp with both Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt having the time of their lives. Especially fun to see Pitt do something completely different.
Tom DiCillo’s Delirious, from his own screenplay, presents a paparazzo’s worm’s-eye view of the ridiculous world of celebrity culture.
Delirious, by writer-director Tom DiCillo, has a special quality because it does not make paparazzi a target but a subject.
...it depends so consistently on plot contrivances and other movies (The King of Comedy,Midnight Cowboy, even All About Eve) that it often comes across as wannabe muckraking.
Someday, far in the future, a team of archeologists will dig up the black, wizened, still beating heart of New York City, and it will look exactly like Steve Buscemi.
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