'AMERICAN,' HOLD THE PIE.Byline: - Bob Strauss Writer-director Paul Weitz's last movie with ``American'' in its title ended with ``Pie'' and was a compendium com·pen·di·um n. pl. com·pen·di·ums or com·pen·di·a 1. A short, complete summary; an abstract. 2. A list or collection of various items. of gross-out, sophomoric soph·o·mor·ic adj. 1. Of or characteristic of a sophomore. 2. Exhibiting great immaturity and lack of judgment: sophomoric behavior. sex jokes. Since then, he's helmed the markedly more mature ``About a Boy'' and ``In Good Company.'' But Weitz's latest, ``American Dreamz''(April 14), is, he says, a step back toward absurdity. Which just may make it his most realistic comedy yet. ``It probably came from me being obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. with watching the last season of 'American Idol' while pushing out of my head all the ups and downs ups and downs pl.n. Alternating periods of good and bad fortune or spirits. ups and downs Noun, pl alternating periods of good and bad luck or high and low spirits of what one reads about in the newspaper every day,'' Weitz says of the piece involving a barely literate president (``Good Company's'' Dennis Quaid), a despicable TV talent show judge (``Boy's'' Hugh Grant) and an equal-opportunity offensive showdown between a singing Arab suicide bomber Noun 1. suicide bomber - a terrorist who blows himself up in order to kill or injure other people act of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political and an orthodox Jewish cantor cantor [Lat.,=singer], a singer or chanter, especially one who performs the solo chants of a church service. The office of cantor, at first an honorary one, originated in the Jewish synagogues, in which from early times it was the custom to appoint a lay member to . ``It's about how the two things kind of co-exist,'' Weitz explains. ``And I thought it was kind of interesting to stretch the bounds of where comedy can go and see if there was a useful tension release in doing a comedy about things that are potentially very serious.'' Much like the ``Pie'' films, though, ``Dreamz'' tries to offer positive messages along with its outrageous humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was . Whether audiences will be too angered to hear them, though, remains to be seen. ``There is a terrorist who loves show tunes and gets chosen to be on this 'American Idol'-type show, and he has to make a decision whether he's going to blow himself and the president up, or if he thinks he has a shot at winning the show,'' Weitz acknowledges. ``But honestly, I stand by what the movie is saying. If I didn't, I think I'd be too ashamed to put it out. I believe that the discussion of the issues in the movie is a thought-out one.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: `AMERICAN DREAMZ' April 21 |
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