Toby, a desperate, but affable, homeless kid insinuates himself into the life of Les, a hapless paparazzo, and offers to serve as his unpaid assistant. Always game for a deal, Les adopts Toby and shows him the sleazy ropes of party crashing, scoring goody bags, and chasing hot tips. As Les and his cameraman cronies clamor for photo opps, handsome Toby locks eyes with K'harma, the sexy reigning pop princess, and is suddenly swept into a glittery fairy tale like a boy-toy Cinderella. Of course Les views Toby's entrée into K'harma's heretofore-untouchable realm as a chance to snap a shot and make a buck. But Toby is genuinely smitten, and when Les is unable to control his impulses, both men must grapple with the meaning of friendship and the price of betrayal.
It's hard not to see our own voyeuristic anxieties play out in Steve Buscemi's brilliantly conceived Les, a loveable buffoon and tragic figure, while Michael Pitt's well-adjusted Toby reflects our best aspirations for authenticity and truth telling in a world obsessed with packaging the image. At a time when celebrity mania is at its zenith, Tom DiCillo delivers a high-energy, sharp-witted satire that pokes ironic fun at the absurd machine--paparazzi, publicists, and stars--that manufactures fame, while also addressing the toll it takes on those caught in its cogs.
Director Tom DiCillo scrutinizes the entertainment industry once again (see also: LIVING IN OBLIVION and THE REAL BLONDE) with DELIRIOUS. The film stars Steve Buscemi as a scuzzy New York City-based paparazzi photographer named Les, and Michael Pitt as a homeless wannabe thespian named Toby. Toby moves into Les's squalid Lower East Side apartment and works, for free, as his assistant. But it doesn't take long before Toby's career is on the up after he's invited to an exclusive party by Les. Toby meets casting director Dana (Gina Gershon) at the party, and subsequently meets pop star K'harma (Alison Lohman). Dana helps Toby to realize his silver screen dreams, while K'harma becomes his celebrity girlfriend. Unfortunately Les, who becomes apoplectic with rage at this sudden upturn in his protege's life, decides to stalk Toby and, fueled by bitterness and jealousy, plots to bring his career to an abrupt halt.
Buscemi gives a wonderful performance as the cranky Les, perfectly portraying a self-loathing New Yorker whose brash exterior masks genuine insecurity and grave personal disappointment. Pitt, Lohman, and Gershon also deserve praise for the way they inhabit the kind of characters that run rife throughout the film and music industries. DELIRIOUS further develops various ideas from DiCillo's previous work, particularly THE REAL BLONDE, and his oeuvre is slowly developing into a fascinating treatise on the love/hate relationship he grudgingly endures with the entertainment industry.
(18 votes)
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