Review of Hollywoodland (2006) by Spangle — 29 Feb 2016

Featuring fantastic acting and a captivating detective story, Hollywoodland is a well-crafted film from director Allen Coulter that suffers from script issues. Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, and Bob Hoskins, all star here and are all phenomenal in their respective roles.

The talented actors really elevate this film about your typical potboiler detective murder mystery type film. Additionally, the film really sheds some interesting light on fame and the quest for it from those in Hollywood, which was compelling and quite tragic.

Additionally, the film received some criticism for being too slow, but I never felt that way. It was certainly on the slower side of things, but I never found the pacing of the film to be an issue. Rather, I appreciated that it did not feel the need to rush things along.

However, the script kind of falters at times, namely that the story can quite muddled and jumbled at times. Characters come into the film and only come back later with minor significance, but you miss information because you spend too much time trying to remember who they were.

This is Hollywoodland's biggest sin as it can come off as though there are too many characters and too much going on at times, which really muddle things up a bit. That being said, it is still a well made film that is quite entertaining with phenomenal acting performances.