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Controlled Chaos

2003, Movie, NR, 93 mins

Controlled Chaos: Review

CONTROLLED CHAOS
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Director Oliver Stone's notorious paranoia lends an air of karmic perfection to this "film a clef" about the beleaguered assistant of a world-famous director, which was written, directed and produced by Stone's own former assistant and is structured like the kind of a paranoid thriller for which he's famous. The bad news is that, though professionally produced on a micro-budget, Azita Zendel's ambitious writing-directing debut is undermined by an awkward script and some very amateurish acting. Personal assistant Elsie (Amy Blomquist) is responsible for scheduling every aspect of egomaniacal director Rick Jones's (Don Hughes) personal and professional lives, as well as enduring his relentless criticism, taking the blame for his manipulative schemes and assuring him that nobody notices his pockmarks. As anyone who's seen SWIMMING WITH SHARKS (1995) or read anything about the lives of Hollywood assistants knows, that's pretty much par for the course. But Rick is a piece of work even by larger-than-life Hollywood standards, a notorious substance abuser, mother-fixated serial womanizer (his favorite come-on line: "you're so maternal"), relentless abuser of actors and crew and all-around paranoid loon. His wife (Charley Izabella King) is divorcing him, and tabloid reporter Slick (Eric Engstrom) is investigating rumors that Rick's personal Dr. Feelgood (Kurt Hall) is pushing dangerous drugs and committed murder to keep his illegal activities secret. Though it's Elsie's story, this should be Rick's show; he's written as a classic monster sacre and they always hog the spotlight. But Hughes isn't up to evoking the terrifying rages, mercurial charm and lightning-fast shifts from one to the other that characterize Kevin Spacey's scathing Buddy Ackerman in SWIMMING WITH SHARKS, the standard by which such performances are judged. Even depicted indifferently, Rick's excesses and, worse, Elsie's excuses for them, have the effect of making her look like some kind of idiot for putting up with him. Her assertion that she respects his commitment to social causes really isn't convincing, and her justification for letting Rick steal her script ideas and pass them off as his own — "it's just important to get the message out" — is simply ridiculous. Elsie's experiences may well be thinly veiled versions of Zendel's own, but she'd be easier to buy as a character if just once she admitted that her boss is an unregenerate jerk and she figures she's paying dues against future career opportunities. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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