American Dreamz (2006) More at IMDb Pro »

In American Dreamz, writer and director Paul Weitz unabashedly skewers Bush, Cheney, politics, American Idol, and the public that watches American Idol all in the same breath. That's quite a bit of satire to cram into a one hour and forty-seven minute movie, but cram Weitz does and for the most part he succeeds quite well.

In the world of American Dreamz President Staton (Dennis Quaid) has just been re-elected in a hard fought campaign. Left to his own devices Staton is non functional. It is his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) who controls his every movement right down to telling Staton what to say through a hidden receiver place in his ear canal. One morning President Staton decides to take it easy and do something he has never done before which is to read a newspaper. "We do have one of those around, don't we," he asks his assistance. "I'm sure we do, but if we don't we can get you one," the assistant replies.

After having read his first newspaper Staton becomes addicted and begins reading anything and everything as if he were a tweener discovering his first Harry Potter story.

Then there is Simon Cowell clone Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant) who produces, hosts, and judges contestants on his version of American Idol called American Dreamz. He's shallow, manipulative, and thinks way too highly of himself. All would be right with the world except that he finds having to do actually do the show somewhat of an annoying minor detail.

Each season becomes more of a challenge to find the right contestants to drive his ratings higher because being number one in all demographics just isn't enough for Tweed. To do this he has to choose the right contestants that Americans can identify with, and their singing prowess has little to do with whom he chooses.

There is Ohio karaoke queen, Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) whose one big dream is not only to appear on Tweed's show but to win. After finding out that she has been selected Sally dumps her boyfriend who joins the Army and is sent to Iraq two weeks after a two week cram course at basic training. Of course he promptly gets shot and returns home as a wounded vet just in time for Sally to reunite with him because it will make a better back story.

Then there's terrorist Omer Obeidi (Sam Golzari). His main thrill in life is listening to American show tunes on old records left to him by his mother who was killed by an American bomb. He promptly flops at terrorist training and is sent to the United States to live with relatives until he is needed. It is there that he is accidentally discovered performing a musical number and given the chance to appear on Dreamz.

When President Staton decides to appear at the finals of American Dreamz as a judge after being in hiding for several weeks, Omer is recruited to blow Staton and himself up with a bomb.

Grant is great as Tweed. In fact, one almost wishes he hosted the real show. His criticisms of the contestants are biting as he sits in judgment in a chair from the audience as if he is a god telling America who gets to enter the pearly gates and who gets a quick drop down the chute to hell. (Tweed: It's up to you America, only you have the awesome power to lift someone up into the heavens and create a new star.)

Grant plays Tweed as if he would be the kind of self-centered ego maniac you would hate living next to you, but in the confines of the TV screen he somehow manages to be admirable, pleasant, and charming. You can't help but like him.

Mandy Moore has played the bad girl before in a wonderful film called Saved! Sally's a bad girl here also but of a different type. She wants to win at all costs but is just as cold and passionless about it as Tweed about how that goal is achieved. In fact Tweed and Kendoo are mirror images of each other, and Moore does a good job here of reflecting Tweed's image so that we can readily see the similarities.

The real surprise here is Golzari as Omer the Terrorist who thinks he should be a terrorist to avenge his mother's death but knows he isn't quite cut out for the job. He just isn't ready to meet Allah especially when the guy that gives him the mission tells him he'll meet him in the afterlife also…..in a number of years that is.

Weitz leaves no stone unturned in his skewering of our infatuation with pop culture and celebrity icons, so much so that we will vote for the manufactured image of our president rather than be bothered with the annoying details of how he might actually run the country. In the wrong hands all of this could have been too heavy handed and dreary, but Weitz keeps things light enough so that we can laugh at ourselves while still giving us some things to think about.

There are a lot of laughs and memorable moments in American Dreamz and you'll be thoroughly entertained, as long as you have no problem laughing at not only the situation of the world around you but by laughing at yourself also.

There are those who will undoubtedly be offended, especially if they are still the adoring fans of certain shows and politicians in the real world and can differentiate the difference between reality and entertainment. I certainly can tell the difference and I had a heckuva good time. And when I have a good time I have no choice but to give American Dreamz my grade and I have decided that American Dreamz is a saucy little minx that deserves a B+.