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	Delirious
	Tom DiCillo Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman, Gina Gershon, Callie Thorne, David Wain, Kevin Corrigan, Elvis Costello, Cinqué Lee 2007		Indictments of our celebrity-obsessed culture can be found in movies, on TV, in print, and in conversation at your local café. But "Delirious" — an acerbic film comedy about a boorish Manhattan photographer, a homeless would-be actor, and a shallow but pretty female pop star — is particularly scathing (with a tremor or two of tension and even a whiff of tragedy) in its treatment of the pressures, egomania and hysteria that accompany a career in the entertainment business and the accompanying ministrations of the media. Blessedly, "Delirious" also brings the funny with crafty performances from principal actors Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, and Alison Lohman; and a sharp script and spring-loaded direction from Tom DiCillo, best-known as cinematographer for filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's deadpan flicks "Coffee and Cigarettes" and "Stranger Than Paradise." Les (an inspired Buscemi) scrambles to snap lurid shots of the famous, yet is offended whenever anyone labels him one of the paparazzi. On the same day that he's stalking trendy, minimally-talented singer K'Harma (Lohman), Les bumps into overgrown street urchin Toby (Pitt). Sensing their common desperation and loneliness, Les makes Toby his assistant. But Toby's subsequent encounter with K'Harma ignites a mutual attraction that alienates Les, and then sends him into a tailspin. Gina Gershon as a vixenish casting director and Elvis Costello as himself add to the delirium. DiCillo previously skewered the independent filmmaking scene with the darkly comic "Living in Oblivion," which featured Buscemi as a hapless director. And Buscemi took on the tenuous relationship between VIPs and the press when he wrote, directed and starred in the taut two-person drama "Interview." Obviously, they know the territory well.


	Sunday, December 22, 2024





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