This is 90's humor -- goofy, silly, and overacted -- but it WORKS in this excellent satire of the soap-opera industry. I wasn't impressed by the beginning, but after the momentum (and various complications) build, the cynical/indignant/sniping humor finds its footing and the result is hilarious. There are some great lines; here's one example.
"What if she can't act?"
"That never stopped us before."
Elisabeth Shue plays Lori Craven, the newcomer to The Sun Also Sets, a long-running soap opera.
Cathy Moriarty plays Montana Moorehead, who plays a raspy nurse character (on The Sun Also Sets). Montana is a schemer and (according to Lori) a deranged *****. Montana's vicious staccato threats to producer David (Robert Downey Jr.) never get old. Cathy Moriarty mixes these rapid-fire throaty snarls into relatively normal conversations in a bizarre way that must be seen to be appreciated. She's intense -- almost as if she's unstable and dangerous (who knew?).
The story-within-a-story format has been done many times, but it's done WELL here; the behind-the-scenes drama is actually better (and more soapy) than the show's nominal script, and this fact gradually dawns on people.
The casting is excellent. Garry Marshall is wonderful as the worried no-nonsense top exec who is dumbfounded (but delighted) with the increasing chaos.
I give this seven stars, plus a bonus star for Sally Field's pitch-perfect performance. That's eight (8) stars total.
DRIFTING OFF-TOPIC (for most, not all)
{Welcome to my Under the Silver Lake (UTSL) distributed essay. This is Part 5. Part 4 was attached to my review of The Phantom.}
Under the Silver Lake (2018) is a strange film with an unsolved (audience) puzzle that references dozens of other films, often in very subtle ways. Soapdish has a surprising number of connections to UTSL; it's debatable how many are intentional. I'll list a few for your consideration.
Both movies feature balloons and mention the homeless.
Both movies have a scene with a bucket oddly placed in the background; in UTSL it's in Bar-Buddy's backyard. In addition, when the Homeless King walks Sam through a park, there's a bucket with four balloons attached, ostensibly for a family B/D party. Two of the four balloon colors correspond to the balloons Lori Craven (Elisabeth Shue) was toting, and two correspond to (fancy/shiny) dress colors she wore later.
The patient bracelet Lori wears in her hospital scene is shaped a bit like Sarah's metal bracelet in UTSL. I'm sensing a pattern here with Elisabeth Shue (see "Speculation Dept" far below).
"Horse****!!" is the expletive-of-choice in Soapdish. In UTSL, Riki Lindhome says this when she's dressed like a nurse (and again, Soapdish has a nurse character).
In Soapdish, a small Wizard of Oz poster (beside Montana Moorehead's make-up mirror) highlights Judy Garland's name. In UTSL, the closest poster to The Songwriter displays Liza Minnelli's name. Liza Minnelli is Judy Garland's daughter.
Soapdish has a frequent red-and-black color scheme. In particular, compare the stacked display cases in David's office with the artwork behind the "lingerie model" that Bar-Buddy spies on with his drone in UTSL. A coincidence seems ... unlikely.
I could go on, but we'd get into (known) operational clues, and I don't want to solve the puzzle FOR you. Loosely speaking, Soapdish is in the same category as Monster vs Aliens; there's one or more important clues buried in each movie. However, Soapdish is somewhat unique in that there are connections to more than one blob.
SPECULATION DEPT
We've established some connections to Bar-Buddy's backyard, which has an owl. A major subplot of Soapdish concerns a kiss (and Lori). Could this relate to the Owl's Kiss? Let's do a thought experiment.
Elisabeth Shue was in two Back-to-the-Future movies, and these obviously concern time travel, as does Doctor Who. The owl hoots twice, which could relate to The House that Dripped Blood, which has TWO actors that played Doctor Who -- Peter Cushing and Jon Pertwee. This movie isn't chosen lightly; the UTSL coffee-shop menu-board has "drip" (coffee) written in a wavy fashion that matches one of The-House-that-Dripped-Blood movie posters. Plus, one of the end-credit toons shows the Owl's Kiss' fingertips literally DRIPPING BLOOD.
Comic-Man's house has a bunch of owl figurines, but that's to be expected given his obsession with the Owl's Kiss.
Now let's return to the B/D party in the park with the bucket-balloons. There's a croquet set there. Croquet IS mentioned (exactly once) in the Doctor Who universe; it's in the audio drama Caerdroia. A caerdroia is a Welsh "turf maze"; basically a type of labyrinth built by shepherds and apparently used for long-forgotten rituals.
So ... in sum, this could be some sort of Easter Egg, additional fan-out, or simply wrong. Bear in mind that Elisabeth Shue could be relevant to UTSL in a completely differently way (which I'm not going to discuss), and this could explain the emphasis on her without invoking owls and time-travel.
SEMI-RANDOM HINT
While Riki Lindhome's outfits ARE important clues, it's best not to read TOO much into them. Each outfit links to multiple films, so ... don't cry "Eureka!" when you see a potential connection. I think the brains behind UTSL were simply using a biggest-bang-for-the-buck approach towards selecting the outfits (i.e., they saw a pattern and capitalized on it).
FOR MORE ABOUT UTSL PUZZLE CLUES
See my (6-star) review of Hang 'Em High.
"What if she can't act?"
"That never stopped us before."
Elisabeth Shue plays Lori Craven, the newcomer to The Sun Also Sets, a long-running soap opera.
Cathy Moriarty plays Montana Moorehead, who plays a raspy nurse character (on The Sun Also Sets). Montana is a schemer and (according to Lori) a deranged *****. Montana's vicious staccato threats to producer David (Robert Downey Jr.) never get old. Cathy Moriarty mixes these rapid-fire throaty snarls into relatively normal conversations in a bizarre way that must be seen to be appreciated. She's intense -- almost as if she's unstable and dangerous (who knew?).
The story-within-a-story format has been done many times, but it's done WELL here; the behind-the-scenes drama is actually better (and more soapy) than the show's nominal script, and this fact gradually dawns on people.
The casting is excellent. Garry Marshall is wonderful as the worried no-nonsense top exec who is dumbfounded (but delighted) with the increasing chaos.
I give this seven stars, plus a bonus star for Sally Field's pitch-perfect performance. That's eight (8) stars total.
DRIFTING OFF-TOPIC (for most, not all)
{Welcome to my Under the Silver Lake (UTSL) distributed essay. This is Part 5. Part 4 was attached to my review of The Phantom.}
Under the Silver Lake (2018) is a strange film with an unsolved (audience) puzzle that references dozens of other films, often in very subtle ways. Soapdish has a surprising number of connections to UTSL; it's debatable how many are intentional. I'll list a few for your consideration.
Both movies feature balloons and mention the homeless.
Both movies have a scene with a bucket oddly placed in the background; in UTSL it's in Bar-Buddy's backyard. In addition, when the Homeless King walks Sam through a park, there's a bucket with four balloons attached, ostensibly for a family B/D party. Two of the four balloon colors correspond to the balloons Lori Craven (Elisabeth Shue) was toting, and two correspond to (fancy/shiny) dress colors she wore later.
The patient bracelet Lori wears in her hospital scene is shaped a bit like Sarah's metal bracelet in UTSL. I'm sensing a pattern here with Elisabeth Shue (see "Speculation Dept" far below).
"Horse****!!" is the expletive-of-choice in Soapdish. In UTSL, Riki Lindhome says this when she's dressed like a nurse (and again, Soapdish has a nurse character).
In Soapdish, a small Wizard of Oz poster (beside Montana Moorehead's make-up mirror) highlights Judy Garland's name. In UTSL, the closest poster to The Songwriter displays Liza Minnelli's name. Liza Minnelli is Judy Garland's daughter.
Soapdish has a frequent red-and-black color scheme. In particular, compare the stacked display cases in David's office with the artwork behind the "lingerie model" that Bar-Buddy spies on with his drone in UTSL. A coincidence seems ... unlikely.
I could go on, but we'd get into (known) operational clues, and I don't want to solve the puzzle FOR you. Loosely speaking, Soapdish is in the same category as Monster vs Aliens; there's one or more important clues buried in each movie. However, Soapdish is somewhat unique in that there are connections to more than one blob.
SPECULATION DEPT
We've established some connections to Bar-Buddy's backyard, which has an owl. A major subplot of Soapdish concerns a kiss (and Lori). Could this relate to the Owl's Kiss? Let's do a thought experiment.
Elisabeth Shue was in two Back-to-the-Future movies, and these obviously concern time travel, as does Doctor Who. The owl hoots twice, which could relate to The House that Dripped Blood, which has TWO actors that played Doctor Who -- Peter Cushing and Jon Pertwee. This movie isn't chosen lightly; the UTSL coffee-shop menu-board has "drip" (coffee) written in a wavy fashion that matches one of The-House-that-Dripped-Blood movie posters. Plus, one of the end-credit toons shows the Owl's Kiss' fingertips literally DRIPPING BLOOD.
Comic-Man's house has a bunch of owl figurines, but that's to be expected given his obsession with the Owl's Kiss.
Now let's return to the B/D party in the park with the bucket-balloons. There's a croquet set there. Croquet IS mentioned (exactly once) in the Doctor Who universe; it's in the audio drama Caerdroia. A caerdroia is a Welsh "turf maze"; basically a type of labyrinth built by shepherds and apparently used for long-forgotten rituals.
So ... in sum, this could be some sort of Easter Egg, additional fan-out, or simply wrong. Bear in mind that Elisabeth Shue could be relevant to UTSL in a completely differently way (which I'm not going to discuss), and this could explain the emphasis on her without invoking owls and time-travel.
SEMI-RANDOM HINT
While Riki Lindhome's outfits ARE important clues, it's best not to read TOO much into them. Each outfit links to multiple films, so ... don't cry "Eureka!" when you see a potential connection. I think the brains behind UTSL were simply using a biggest-bang-for-the-buck approach towards selecting the outfits (i.e., they saw a pattern and capitalized on it).
FOR MORE ABOUT UTSL PUZZLE CLUES
See my (6-star) review of Hang 'Em High.