WHO'S THE CABOOSE?: Hollywood Looks Itself in the mirror

June 19, 1998

Showings:
June 20 - Colonial Promenade, midnight

4 starving actors out of 5

Questions, questions, questions. Is it comedy with liberal smatterings of reality? Is it reality with liberal smatterings of comedy? Is it mostly improvisation? Is it mostly scripted? And who exactly is the "caboose?" Oh hell! Better put those type-A personality tendencies aside for this one, because WHO'S THE CABOOSE? revels in ambiguity, lathers in those gray, fuzzy areas, and celebrates absurdity. Where else, then, would something like this take place, but in Hollywood.

WHO'S THE CABOOSE? starts as a sobering documentary about a rare disease striking the homeless population of New York city. After finding the perfect antidote to sobriety, the drunken filmmakers decide to shift their $25,000 in grant money to a more interesting subject - pilot season in Hollywood.

The film crew follows a self-involved, aspiring actress named Susan (Sarah Silverman) through auditions, lunches, dinners, parties, and any other possible manifestation of the schmooze session. Susan's lackluster boyfriend Max (Sam Seder) soon follows her to Tinseltown, in a weak attempt to preserve their amusingly superficial relationship. He instantly receives a crash course in the actor-eat-actor world of pilot season.

Lesson 1: Everyone loves a "somebody" in Hollywood, but "nobodies" are one step above vermin. This sets the stage for much of the film's comedy with its depiction of bitter, failed actors; selfish, two-faced agents; and mindless, pompous working actors.

Max, being a nobody, has to practically beg his old buddy Earl (David Waterman) - who just landed his own pilot - to let him sleep on a tiny exercise mat in his apartment. Earl overtly treats Max like a disease and ribs him harshly throughout the story, creating some very funny moments. After agreeing to let "Maxi-pad' stay for a while, Earl calmly requests that he sterilize the workout mat each morning after sleeping on it.

Visually, WHO'S THE CABOOSE? is unimpressive. This is after all digital Video - not film. It's shot from a fly-on-the-wall perspective in bleak casting offices and fuzzy dark restaurant corners and boring apartments. The unimaginative lensing screams "cheap!" This does, however, add to the strong sense of documentary-style realism in the production.

Whatever blandness the eyes must endure is offset by the unparalleled flaunting of verbal artistry in the film's characters. The dialogue is so sharp and so natural, that you'd wonder if there was a script to begin with. A long list of recognizable comedians - Andy Dick, David Cross, and Kathy Griffin to name a few - flex their improvisational muscles in long, unconstrained tirades about the business. Andy Dick's character, the bitchy and controlling manager of Susan, describes his job at a dinner as being "the good-cop, bad-cop" in acquiring work for clients. Scenes like this leave little doubt that the actors and filmmakers have capitalized on their real-life experiences in the Hollywood trenches while crafting WHO'S THE CABOOSE?

Ken Fold (H. Jon Benjamin) epitomizes the sleazy entertainment lawyer who can sell anything and anyone to his mindless, hype-driven contacts in the business. After seeing Max shake a "somebody's" hand in a restaurant, Ken smells money. He goes in for the kill, accosting Max at the establishment's urinal. Ken eventually seduces the seemingly skeptical Max into joining the pilot season game.

Time for a conference call. In one scene, Ken orchestrates a hilarious hype session between opposing agencies, working the hold button, smiling and winking at the astounded Max, building him into a mountain of talent. The inside joke, however, is that Ken talks so much, he never has a chance to learn that Max is basically a talent-less guy in Hollywood simply there to see his actress girlfriend. Benjamin gives perhaps the best performance in the picture. His fast-talking smoothness and shit-eating perma-grin are impressive and abominable at the same time. Maybe not your traditional comedic fodder, but WHO'S THE CABOOSE? is darkly and viciously funny, nonetheless. The film is an indictment of the ridiculous mentalities ruling Hollywood. Strangely enough, all the loathsome vices of the characters only act as fuel to the comedic fire.

Jonathan Figg
After graduating Rollins College in 1997, I plummeted into the real world as a writer and editor for an international business and finance publication based out of Altamonte Springs. I've written three feature-length screenplays and will direct my second short 16mm film this July. I look forward to having one of my own films reviewed in The Slant in the not-too-distant future. I welcome your hate mail, love letters, and anything in between at jonbug@ix.netcom.com.