Dann in reel life: Pitching for a documentary

Reel Life review: ‘POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'

“POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” is even more “meta” than “Scream 4” imagines itself to be.

Documentary maker Morgan Spurlock concocts an outrageously silly premise for a film: He wants to raise money for his new movie about product placement in the movies by asking companies to buy product placements in his movie.

Spurlock, who ate nothing but fast food in “Super Size Me,” then wondered “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?,” is an ideal director for a project like this. He's a natural salesman and he could give Michael Moore a lesson in self-promotion in documentaries.

“Greatest Movie” whisks us through the process of securing product placements and sponsorships, with a brisk montage showing Spurlock's failed attempts to secure commitments from many name companies.

He finally gets some out-of-the-box thinkers at POM pomegranate juice to be the official sponsors (hence the new, longer movie title), along with JetBlue, Hyatt Hotels, the Sheetz gas station chain, and other companies to help out.

This is admittedly about a 60-minute doc stretched to more than 86 minutes, with a few segments that could have been cut or trimmed. (Why is a Florida school system that has taken advantage of promotional advertising in a film about product placement in movies?)

Still, Spurlock is never a bore as he barrels down the road, selling his integrity to the highest bidder, while soliciting advice on ethical behavior from such guests as Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader.

No matter how crazy Spurlock gets in “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” this doc serves as a basic primer on modern advertising and provides a tantalizing peek behind the curtain of that insidious thing called product placement.

“The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” opens at the Century Centre in Chicago and the Evanston Century. Rated PG-13 for language. 86 minutes. ★ ★ ★

It's ‘motion-enhanced'

If you want to take the action sequences in the upcoming film “Fast Five” to the next level, sit in one of the 36 oversized, red D-BOX seats at Muvico's Rosemont 18 Theatre.

It's the first movie house in Illinois to feature D-BOX motion-enhanced seats that pitch, roll and heave during intense high-speed car chases and dramatic fight scenes.

Muvico rolls out the new seats for “Fast Five” — another sequel to “The Fast and the Furious” — on April 29.

No word yet on if Muvico's concession counter will offer Dramamine.

It's a festival sweep!

Congratulations to Kyle Rawlinson, a senior from Libertyville High School. He won a $100 Achievement in Writing award and a $250 Best in Show award for his stop-action short “Waiting for Time” at the third annual Screen Test Student Fest Saturday at the Prairie Arts Center in Schaumburg.

He also won a second place $150 cash award for his documentary “Never Fell Out of Love.”

More critical kudos to Joe Kosty, a senior from Gurnee, who won a $100 Achievement in Production Values award for his noir-influenced “The Address.” He also picked up a $100 third place prize for his slasher film sendup “Santa's Revenge.”

Rawlinson and Kosty took all five of the awards for the evening.

“It was kind of a sweep,” festival coordinator Rob Pileckis said.

An estimated 200 people watched the Screen Test Student Fest, featuring short films made by Chicago-area students.

It's the ‘Rebel' returns

The After Hours Film Society presents the ultimate teen angst drama “Rebel Without a Cause,” starring James Dean, at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. Critic Robert K. Elder, author of the splendid book “The Movie That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on their Epiphanies in the Dark,” will be the host.

Tickets cost $9 ($5 for members). Go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.

Reel Life review: ‘I Am'

I cannot say I loved Tom Shadyac's documentary “I Am” because it's a masterpiece of personal journalism.

It's a mess, filled with pretentious cutaways of birds flying and water rolling on the shore. Shadyac's propensity for placing himself in his own movie is distracting. He lets some guests ramble. He doesn't need the crutch of songs buttressing the message, either.

Yet, I can say I loved “I Am” because it feeds my basic Anne Frankian view of the world, that people are basically good, and that the thoughts of Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ are more valid that those of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand.

Fans of Shadyac's feature film comedies — among them “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Nutty Professor” — will be surprised by this doc, for it takes us down a serious road of unexpected enlightenment.

Shadyac tells us how a near-fatal accident brought about an introspection that resulted not only in him selling his mansions to live in a mobile home, but making this movie about “mental illness.”

He poses two questions: “What's wrong with the world?” and “What can we do about it?” And sets off to find the answers in a movie that gives us fast food for thought.

Through literary quotes and on-camera interviews with scientists and philosophers, “I Am” compiles the scientific evidence that Darwin wasn't quite accurate. Cooperation, not competition, is the preferred system of the animal kingdom.

Achievement at the expense of others and individualism (not needing community) aren't what people are all about, yet we've built our society on those foundations. At least that's the consensus of the thinkers.

“I Am” goes further by producing evidence that the human heart actually throws out electromagnetic waves that react to the environment, giving credibility to the ages-old notion that the heart, not the head, rules the body.

And we're way too materialistic in Western culture.

“It isolates you,” Noam Chomsky says. “It tries to make you passive and apathetic as far as the political system is concerned. and active as a maximum consumer.”

Oh, the “mental illness” that Shadyac promised to address?

It's what ancient cultures, among them Native Americans, called it when people amassed more stuff than they would ever need.

“I Am” opens at the River East 21 in Chicago. Not rated, but suitable for general audiences. 76 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½

Reel Life review: ‘The Elephant in the Living Room'

“The Elephant in the Living Room” could have been — and should have been — an electrifying, urgent work of investigative reporting that alerts us to the dangers and cruelty of keeping exotic pets in American households.

Instead, Michael Webber's documentary blunts its own investigative fangs with a tame pace and a tepid feature approach that pitches its best footage after an unnecessarily lengthy windup.

Lions? And tigers? And bears?

Oh, my! That's just the start of the list of exotic creatures people have in their homes — until the critters get too mean or big and have to be dumped in a forest preserve or on a highway, or the animals escape and give local TV news stations something to boost ratings.

Webber follows Ohio public safety officer Tim Harrison, who has been retrieving escaped pythons, vipers, alligators, lions, tigers and other exotic pets for years. He even lost a colleague to a deadly viper bite.

For contrast, Webber offers Terry Blumfield, a former trucker whose suicidal depression was cured when he adopted two beloved lions, housed in a small horse trailer.

Webber can't decide if “Elephant” should be an issue-driven doc that chastises people for being shortsighted and selfish, or a warm human interest feature, so he splits the difference.

He winds up with a shapeless, edgeless movie that infrequently hits us with a raw, emotional moment or disturbing visuals, such as the hidden camera footage of an exotic animal expo where poisonous snakes, spiders and scorpions are set out in clear plastic containers like food at a deli counter.

“Am I a hero, or a villain?” Harrison says, questioning his own actions. “Because I don't have any happy endings.” Many rescued exotic pets are eventually euthanized. Does Harrison ever really rescue them?

And isn't it a little disingenuous to let Harrison assert there are no happy endings, then have the movie undermine him by showing the rare exception over the closing credits?

“The Elephant in the Living Room” opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Not rated. 96 minutes. ★ ★ ½

• Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!