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THE IDOLMAKER
Director Taylor Hackford put himself on the map with a sleeper from 1980 called The Idolmaker, a dazzling show business tale wrapped around a compelling character study that takes an up close look at the manufacturing of teen idols in the 1950's, which were more of a product than we realized that works primarily due to Hackford's service to a terrific story and the mesmerizing performance he pulled from his leading man.
This is a fictionalized look at the career of record promoter/producer Bob Marcucci who was responsible for the careers of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Here, Marcucci becomes Vincent Vaccari, an ambitious Italian songwriter who, through reading teen idol magazines, has learned what it takes to be a star and has decided that a lot of it is based on a look, which he doesn't have, but he does see the look in a childhood friend and second rate sax player named Tommy D and grooms the reluctant wanna-be to a level of fame that goes to Tommy's head and just when he thinks he doesn't need Vincent's help anymore, Vincent tackles another project in the form of a 16 year old busboy named Guido, who has the look, but needs serious help with everything else involved in achieving teen idol status, but Guido, who Vincent renames Ceasare, begins to outgrow Vincent as well.
Hackford and screenwriter Edward Di Lorenzo have provided the classic cinematic look at show business stardom from another angle that really found its origins on the Broadway stage. Watch Vincent backstage during Tommy's first big show, duplicating every move Tommy is making onstage, it rings so true. Vincent Vacarri is a contemporary re-thinking of Rose Hovick, the stage mother from hell created on Broadway by Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Vincent has gotten it into his head that because he doesn't have the looks that stardom requires that he is going to live out his own show business aspirations vicariously through the grooming of Tommy and Ceasare and just like June and Louise in Gypsy, Tommy and Ceasare find Vincent's guidance turning into a strangle hold onto their lives from which they can't escape and find themselves torn between their gratitude to Vincent for what he has done for them and the desire to have their own lives back.
But it's not what's happening onstage with these two teen idols that makes this movie work, but watching Vincent's Svengali-like handling of these guys and how, even if they or the viewer don't want to admit it, it is clear that this guy knows exactly what he's doing, even if some of his methods aren't always kosher. I love the scene where after his initial approach of Guido which meets with reluctance from the young man, Vincent goes to the boy's grandmother with his plans for Guido and the entire conversation between the two is in Italian and even though the scene is done entirely in Italian, we know exactly what Vincent is telling Grandma and the melting of her initial icy exterior is obvious and a joy to watch.
In my reviews of other Taylor Hackford films, I have often spoke of his self-indulgence as a director and how sometimes his films are a little sluggish in his pacing of the story, but there is little of that here...everything Hackford does here serves the story, despite some cliched dialogue that sounds like discarded scripts from The Sopranos, there is very little wasted screentime here.
The late Ray Sharkey is simultaneously slick, explosive, and controlled in the title role, a performance that won him a Golden Globe and generated serious Oscar buzz and if the film had been released another year, might have garnered him a nomination. This was a gifted actor with mad onscreen charisma who was taken from us much too soon. I never really bought Peter Gallagher as a 16 year old, but he fully commits to the role of Guido/Ceasare giving a real movie star performance that lights up the screen, as does Paul Sand as Tommy D and an early turn from Joe Pantoliano as Vincent's BFF and music director. Tovah Feldshuh brings a substance to the role of the magazine editor who Vincent uses and abuses that really isn't in the screenplay and if you don't blink, you'll catch future Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis as Vincent's mom and Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch as a reporter who works for Feldshuh, but it is Hackford's direction and the sensational performance from Ray Sharkey that make this one sizzle through the closing credits.
Director Taylor Hackford put himself on the map with a sleeper from 1980 called The Idolmaker, a dazzling show business tale wrapped around a compelling character study that takes an up close look at the manufacturing of teen idols in the 1950's, which were more of a product than we realized that works primarily due to Hackford's service to a terrific story and the mesmerizing performance he pulled from his leading man.
This is a fictionalized look at the career of record promoter/producer Bob Marcucci who was responsible for the careers of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Here, Marcucci becomes Vincent Vaccari, an ambitious Italian songwriter who, through reading teen idol magazines, has learned what it takes to be a star and has decided that a lot of it is based on a look, which he doesn't have, but he does see the look in a childhood friend and second rate sax player named Tommy D and grooms the reluctant wanna-be to a level of fame that goes to Tommy's head and just when he thinks he doesn't need Vincent's help anymore, Vincent tackles another project in the form of a 16 year old busboy named Guido, who has the look, but needs serious help with everything else involved in achieving teen idol status, but Guido, who Vincent renames Ceasare, begins to outgrow Vincent as well.
Hackford and screenwriter Edward Di Lorenzo have provided the classic cinematic look at show business stardom from another angle that really found its origins on the Broadway stage. Watch Vincent backstage during Tommy's first big show, duplicating every move Tommy is making onstage, it rings so true. Vincent Vacarri is a contemporary re-thinking of Rose Hovick, the stage mother from hell created on Broadway by Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Vincent has gotten it into his head that because he doesn't have the looks that stardom requires that he is going to live out his own show business aspirations vicariously through the grooming of Tommy and Ceasare and just like June and Louise in Gypsy, Tommy and Ceasare find Vincent's guidance turning into a strangle hold onto their lives from which they can't escape and find themselves torn between their gratitude to Vincent for what he has done for them and the desire to have their own lives back.
But it's not what's happening onstage with these two teen idols that makes this movie work, but watching Vincent's Svengali-like handling of these guys and how, even if they or the viewer don't want to admit it, it is clear that this guy knows exactly what he's doing, even if some of his methods aren't always kosher. I love the scene where after his initial approach of Guido which meets with reluctance from the young man, Vincent goes to the boy's grandmother with his plans for Guido and the entire conversation between the two is in Italian and even though the scene is done entirely in Italian, we know exactly what Vincent is telling Grandma and the melting of her initial icy exterior is obvious and a joy to watch.
In my reviews of other Taylor Hackford films, I have often spoke of his self-indulgence as a director and how sometimes his films are a little sluggish in his pacing of the story, but there is little of that here...everything Hackford does here serves the story, despite some cliched dialogue that sounds like discarded scripts from The Sopranos, there is very little wasted screentime here.
The late Ray Sharkey is simultaneously slick, explosive, and controlled in the title role, a performance that won him a Golden Globe and generated serious Oscar buzz and if the film had been released another year, might have garnered him a nomination. This was a gifted actor with mad onscreen charisma who was taken from us much too soon. I never really bought Peter Gallagher as a 16 year old, but he fully commits to the role of Guido/Ceasare giving a real movie star performance that lights up the screen, as does Paul Sand as Tommy D and an early turn from Joe Pantoliano as Vincent's BFF and music director. Tovah Feldshuh brings a substance to the role of the magazine editor who Vincent uses and abuses that really isn't in the screenplay and if you don't blink, you'll catch future Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis as Vincent's mom and Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch as a reporter who works for Feldshuh, but it is Hackford's direction and the sensational performance from Ray Sharkey that make this one sizzle through the closing credits.