Shared Darkness

A comedic casserole existing at the intersecting planes of love and
fame, politics and pop culture, writer-director Paul Weitz’s American Dreamz
is apt to produce uneasy feelings in general audiences not prepared for
the churning, potentially incendiary mix of elements at its core. While
not the cheeky mainstream broadside that it’s obviously and
understandably being marketed as, the film is enjoyably idiosyncratic
if a little sloppy, a rib-nudging exploration of manipulated “reality”
that asks viewers to think about the true meanings of the words hero
and martyr.