Telling Lies in America Movie Review 1996

Semiautobiographical Esterhaus-penned coming-of-ager allies a star-struck and naive Hungarian immigrant teen with dirty deejay on the take in early 60s Cleveland. Karchy Jones (Renfro) worships the slick polyester prince of the airwaves Billy Magic (Bacon), and through a contest at school, wins a chance to become his eager-beaver lackey. The twisted rock-n-roll mentor shows Karchy his own, highly cynical version of attaining the American Dream which, naturally, leads to trouble. Universally acclaimed performance by Bacon, who takes a one-dimensional persona and runs with it. Flockhart plays the "it" girl of Karchy's dreams. Smoothly told story suffers from a few of the usual cliches, but makes up for in heart.

Distribution

BMG Entertainment, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036-4039, Phone: (212)930-4000, URL: http://www.bmg.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 101 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Coming of Age, Dream Girls, Radio, Period Piece: 1960s, Teen Angst

Screenplay

Joe Eszterhas

Cast

Kevin Bacon, Brad Renfro, Maximilian Schell, Calista Flockhart, Paul Dooley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Luke Wilson

Cinematography

Reynaldo Villalobos

Director

Guy Ferland

Music

Nicholas Pike

Producer

Brian Swardstrom, Mickey Liddell