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DULL 'CONFESSIONS' SHOULD BEG FOR AUDIENCE'S FORGIVENESS.


Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

LINDSAY LOHAN Lindsay Dee Lohan (born July 2 1986) is an American actress and pop music singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement and television commercials.  is a talented singer, dancer and actress. But even she can't enliven en·liv·en  
tr.v. en·liv·ened, en·liv·en·ing, en·liv·ens
To make lively or spirited; animate.



en·liven·er n.
 the flat dialogue and nondramatic incidents in ``Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.''

A catchy title and murky concept in search of a story to tell, ``Confessions'' depends way too much on those unengaging words to move its narrative along. Lohan's Mary Cep ... uh, pardon me, she says her name is Lola ... is constantly complaining on the voice-over track or to her new school friend Ella (Alison Pill) about how awful the Garden State is compared to Manhattan. However, we're shown little or nothing to indicate that that is actually so. Yes, I know, she's supposed to be a drama queen, but even some interesting contrast to Lola's self-obsessed worldview world·view  
n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.
1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.

2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.
 would have generated some easy laughs - which this movie could use.

Instead, we get semi-animated fantasy sequences and a disturbing school production of ``Pygmalion'' updated with outdated hip-hop lines and even moldier, classic rock production numbers.

There's also a nasty rich antagonist on the 'burb campus, clique (mathematics) clique - A maximal totally connected subgraph. Given a graph with nodes N, a clique C is a subset of N where every node in C is directly connected to every other node in C (i.e. C is totally connected), and C contains all such nodes (C is maximal).  queen Carla (Megan Fox). Through perpetually sneering lips, she actually criticizes an accessory to one of Lola's kooky, ``individualistic'' ensembles as ``so 10 minutes ago.'' Memo to screenwriter Gail Parent Gail Parent is an American television and screenwriter, television producer, and author.

Parent's writing career began with a 1971 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
: It's only been three or four years since ``10 minutes ago'' went out of style.

Some status nonsense requires Lola and Ella to get into the last concert their favorite band, Sidarthur, is playing across the Hudson. They don't have tickets, so some sub-Lucy-and-Ethel antics are in order. Plot necessity, or at least this film's pale imitation of that, requires that the girls wind up with their dissolute dis·so·lute  
adj.
Lacking moral restraint; indulging in sensual pleasures or vices.



[Middle English, from Latin dissol
 idol, Sidarthur frontman front·man  
n.
1. also front man A man who serves as a nominal leader but who lacks real authority.

2. Music A leading singer with a group.
 Stu Wolff (Adam Garcia Adam Garcia (born June 1, 1973 in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia), born Adam Gabriel Garcia, is an Australian actor of Colombian descent. Career
Adam left university to take the role of Slide in the production of the musical 'Hot Shoe Shuffle', which toured
, squeezing out a funny performance despite the odds), in various SoHo alleys and precinct houses.

Carol Kane plays the school theater teacher. She is encouraged to look and sound gooney. Which is also what ``Confessions' '' director, Sara Sugarman, instructed Rachel Griffiths to do in her thoroughly winning previous film, ``Very Annie Marie.'' That movie, set in a small Welsh village, covered many of the same themes this one does: exurban alienation, the joy/terror of performing, daddy and hero-worship issues, the tenuousness of outsider friendships and the cost of lying to yourself and others.

The difference is, ``Very Annie Mary'' had something worth saying. And it said it in compelling ways. ``Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen'' is more like a stream-of-consciousness riff on girl movie notions - minus the consciousness part.

Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN - One and one half stars

(PG: language)

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Alison Pill, Adam Garcia, Glenne Headly, Megan Fox, Carol Kane, Eli Marienthal.

Director: Sara Sugarman.

Running time: 1 hr. 26 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: Girl moves from New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
 to suburban Jersey and for the most part has tepid, generic adventures.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Alison Pill, left, and Lindsay Lohan suffer through a bad hair day in ``Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.''
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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Feb 20, 2004
Words:504
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