A detective (Adrien Brody) examines the mysterious death of George Reeves (Ben Affleck), TV’s Superman.

I hate to say it, bu the buzz about Affleck in Hollywoodland is worthy. He actually, acted, and acted well as George Reeves, the once TV Superman. I believe Mr. Affleck is set to receive the supporting actor of the year award at Hollywood Film Festival’s Hollywood Awards and he has already won best actor at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Could he be up for another Oscar or a Golden Globe? Why not, at least this time he’ll deserve it. Not that Good Will Hunting was a good movie, but it certainly wasn’t great and certainly did not deserve an Oscar. If Van Sant didn’t direct that film, it would have been a Lifetime TV movie if there were a Lifetime network for men.

Anyway, Hollywoodland was a solid, satisfying and entertaining film. Adrien Brody, per usual, was great. And it was nice to see Dash Mihok in a more serious role as one of the cops of the case of Reeves’ death. The film was less shiny than Dahlia and for grown ups. Like Dahlia Hollywoodland dealt with the mysterious murder of an actor/actress in 1950s Hollywood. Unlike Dahlia, Reeves actually landed a gig or two in the spotlight before his death. It’s never revealed what really happened to Reeves. We’re shown three scenarios where either he died by his own hand, by accident and by murder. The film leans towards the suicide angle, but it seems there were a couple of people in Reeves life that had motive to do him harm including his girlfriend, ex-girlfriend (of a married woman) and possibly the married woman’s husband, though they seemed to had a very open relationship.

Adrien Brody’s character, Louis Simo takes the case for the money, but after the murder of a woman by her neelessly jealous husband (who hired him to spy on his allegedly cheating wife), his priorities and morals change so he seeks justice out of guilt. I was very delighted by the subtle and very strong directing by Allen Coulter whose mostly directed episodes of several HBO shows including Sopranos, Sex and the City, Rome and Six Feet Under along with other network television shows such as X-Files. This was his first film and he did a bang-up job.

If one felt compelled to compare both The Black Dahlia to Hollywoodland, there would be no need. They’re too different films. Dahlia was more stylized and shiny while Hollywoodland was more subtle and a little grittier, but not by much. Hollywoodland concentrated much more on the life of the deceased actor, in more depth and with more sympathy than Dahlia. Dahlia seemed to be more about solving the mystery and it’s effect on the people around the mystery whereas in Hollywoodland, the film was less about the mystery of the death of George Reeves and more about the death of George Reeves. It’s ironic that this is the case considering we don’t get to know for sure who killed George Reeves, but we’re not too bothered by not knowing ’cause we got to know about him. Whereas, in Dahlia, we would have been very annoyed if the mystery weren’t solved ’cause the life of Elizabeth Short, whoever she was as a person, wasn’t at all that interesting and what little you knew about her didn’t really make me, at least, feel much sympathy for her death. The heinous nature of the way she was killed, perhaps, but that’s just human nature to be a little disturbed. I suppose this is why the angle the film took in focusing on the lives of the people investigating her death was a better way to go.

In the end, I think Hollywoodland is the more solid film though both are quite entertaining.

• Directing: [rating:3/5]
• Acting: [rating:3/5]
• Casting: [rating:3/5]
• Cinematography: [rating:3/5]
• Writing: [rating:3/5]
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