Hollywoodland

One thing I did get done last weekend was that I watched a rental DVD.

This one's been sat on my shelf for a good couple of weeks, which isn't good. I like to get them watched as early in the month as I can so that I guarantee I get the most value from them.

Anyway, the rental in question was Hollywoodland, which starred Ben Affleck. I believe, though I may well be wrong about this, but it was heralded as something of a "return to form" following the nightmare abortion that was "Gigli" and some other dodgy movies.

I have to say that Ben was good in it. Indeed, all of the performances were pretty good, although Bob Hoskin's accent seemed a bit wobbly early on to me.

However, I didn't really enjoy the film.

It reminded me a lot of the Black Dahlia. Now that isn't to say it was that bad, it's just it was set during a similar sort of period and was about Hollywood (Hollywoodland used to be the old name for Hollywood - the sign even used to have the 'land' bit, trivia fans).

Maybe it's just me, but there's something about these two "real crime" films that I didn't really like.

I think a major part is to do with the fact they never really gave you a proper answer. Clearly, Black Dahlia had a theory as to who it was, but it was just so bizarre and stupid and made so little sense it just felt rubbish. Hollywoodland didn't really even have one of those - the detective chasing the story never really came to a definite definitive conclusion other than a sort of vague suggestion that it probably was suicide in the end.

The only saving grace for Hollywoodland is that it was clearly intended that way - the detective rediscovers what's important through investigating the murder, type story.

The other thing about them that turns me off is they feel like they're really self-indulgent naval-gazing exercises.

It's like the directors are more interested in the Hollywood of the 40's and 50's than the stories themselves. I think the intention of both is sort of to go "Here's the seedy underbelly of Hollywood."

But there are two things with that. First, we all kinda know it was seedy already, but then second there's a feeling that they don't really mean it. Or at least, maybe they do, but they're also going "Woah, cool, it's old Hollywood - great, huh?"