`REAL BLONDE' HAS MORE FUN POKING AT IMAGE-CONSCIOUS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``The Real Blonde'' takes a variety of shots at our image-conscious pop culture, and the good number that hit their target are quite amusing.

The overall assault, however, is an easy one - who doesn't know that fashion and advertising and daytime TV and rock videos are fundamentally empty nonsense? - and writer-director Tom DiCillo doesn't really have anything new to say about it.

But ``Blonde'' works best as a film of enlightened moments, when people who devote their working lives to manufacturing and pursuing false hopes gain inklings of how absurd it all is. DiCillo's previous films ``Johnny Suede,'' ``Living in Oblivion'' and ``Box of Moonlight'' were all about people coming out of their delusional shells to get a truer grasp of their lives. This is kind of his magnum opus on that theme, and it's tellingly funny when it isn't sentimental or obvious.

The main characters here are defined by their tenuous relationships and shaky dreams. Airhead model Sahara (Bridgette Wilson) gets deep inner meaning from ``The Little Mermaid'' and loves soap-opera actor Bob (Maxwell Caulfield). Bob, however, will settle for nothing less than a genuinely blond woman (Sahara is only a stunning facsimile). His co-star Kelly (Daryl Hannah) is the real article, but she might be too much for Bob to handle.

Meanwhile, Bob's pal Joe (Matthew Modine) is a serious thespian who's never had an acting job. He's lived a long time with makeup artist Mary (Catherine Keener), and although they clearly love each other, the relationship's future is in doubt since Joe is well into his 30s and still waiting tables for a living.

As these uncertain strivers blunder about New York's glamour and media scenes, they bang into a number of (generally more humorous) supporting characters.

There's the fashion photographer Blair (Marlo Thomas), who resourcefully whips up a black-and-blue concept spread when Sahara shows up at a shoot bruised from a beating - which, intriguingly, is never explained.

Then there's Denis Leary's Doug, who teaches a self-defense-cum-rage-release class for women, and is clearly working out some of his own power trips on intrigued student Mary. And Christopher Lloyd is a scream as the fastidious master of catered-event table waiting; he has constructed an entire ethical universe around the serving of overcooked salmon.

As in all DiCillo's movies, fantasy sequences pop up without warning, as do cliches (a dumb model - imagine that). That business interferes with generally decent character observation and consistently fine acting from one of the most eclectic casts assembled in awhile.

But if DiCillo makes a few wrong turns, he makes up for it by taking us down some truly unique avenues. My favorite scene in ``The Real Blonde'' - and maybe it's something only a movie critic fully appreciates - is a restaurant-wide discussion of the merits and pretensions of some art film titled, with brilliant drollery, ``Il Piano.''

Whether it's what passes for high art these days, vulgar Madonna videos, manipulation disguised as pop psychology or men's magazine definitions of desiribility, DiCillo keeps making the point that by looking at that stuff we're missing something better.

At its most imaginative, ``The Real Blonde'' offers a quick glimpse of something better.

The facts

The film: ``The Real Blonde'' (R; sex, language, nudity)

The stars: Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, Daryl Hannah, Maxwell Caulfield, Bridgette Wilson, Elizabeth Berkley, Denis Leary, Kathleen Turner, Marlo Thomas.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Tom DiCillo. Produced by Marcus Viscidi and Tom Rosenberg. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 47 minutes.

Playing: Beverly Center Cineplex, West Hollywood; AMC Century 14, Century City; Criterion, Santa Monica.

Our rating: three stars