Film review: I want my EDtv! Deanna Symoski staff writer I want you to try something as you’re sitting here reading this news paper: take a look at the stranger sit ting near you. Go ahead, he won’t mind. Is he doing anything particu larly interesting? Reading a book? Picking his nose? Maybe he’s al ready looking at you. Now imagine someone took this same stranger and put him on TV. Do you think you’d watch? Do you think you’d care? Ron Howard says you would. At least that’s the theory behind his new film, EDtv. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Ed Pekurny, a thirty-one year old video store clerk whose charming smile and southern drawl are enough to win him the role of himself in a new endeavor by True TV. In the film, the reality-based net work, which is home to infomercials and home video specials, has been getting crushed by the Gardening Channel in the ratings lately and is looking to try something new. Ellen DeGeneres plays the television execu tive who decides to find an ordinary guy, tape his life, unedited, and run it twenty-four hours a day in hopes of reviving the networks appeal. Apprehensive at first, Ed decides to go ahead with the project when Ray, his opportunistic brother played by Woody Harrelson, points out all the The Beacon Applicants for the position of editor-in-chief should contact Ken Miller in the Office of Student Affairs in the Reei Applicants for editorial and managerial positions should contact The Beacon directly either by mail at the Reed U Building or through e-mail at behrcolls@aol.com by Friday, April 9,1999. Editors can receive academic credit for their work. Managers may receive business credit or stipends. Others interested in working as reporters, columnists, or advertising sales staff for next academic year are also v come to contact The Beacon at this time. Reporters are eligible for course credit. Advertising sales staff are elig good Ed could do with the money: namely to help Ray open a gym. And so taping begins on the morning of Day 1 as Ed slowly awakens to a bed room full of cameras and a handful of people waiting to see what hap pens next. And what happens next is pretty uneventful as Ed brushes his teeth, flexes for the cameras and checks out his own butt in his television set. It’s only when Ed catches Ray cheating on his girlfriend, Shari (Jenna Elfman), that things begin to get in teresting. Caught live on film Shari catches Ray, too, and when Ed visits to comfort her, his life instantly turns into a soap opera that enraptures the nation. Now as a bona fide star, his face is plastered on the sides of buses, he’s invited to the Tonight Show, and beau tiful Elizabeth Hurley, playing a model, is a little more than smitten. Ed doesn’t have a bad gig until everybody in his life becomes fair game for the media and public alike. The newspapers begin taking polls to see if Shari is good enough for him (71% said no—talk about an ego boost!) and the execs start playing god with his life. His brother writes an aptly-titled tell-all book, his mother’s sordid affairs are exposed, and his friends are appearing on tele vision forums spinning their philoso phies about the state of the world. managing editor news editor features editor sports editor business manager advertising manager layout editor photo editor editorial page editor wire services editor associate editor (calendar question of the week, police & safety) office manager distribution manager Trapped by an unforgiving contract, Ed realizes celebrity isn’t so much fun anymore and he devises a plan to re gain his life. EDtv is wildly entertaining, but more than that, it makes the viewer reexamine his or her own idea of fame: why does it seem we all want our fifteen minutes in the spotlight, and why can any idiot with a video camera can get it? From Puck’s exodus from The Real World to The World's Most Shocking Pet Surgeries, America can’t get enough of its neighbors: where they’re going, what they’re doing even who they’re doing it with. Reality has become the new fic tion it seems, and maybe that’s be cause lately, it’s just more interesting than anything Hollywood could con trive (at least until the new Star Wars movie opens). But just because some guy on Guinness Primetime grew his finger nails eighteen feet long, it doesn’t mean he’s a hero. And you wouldn’t even know Monica Lewinsky’s name if she hadn’t done what she did, but does that make her a star? Why should she get to go to the Oscar's and not you? By tuning in, however, we make the stranger sitting across from us a celebrity, with all the perks celebrities get To take a line from the film: “it used to be you were fa mous because you were special, now is now seeking academic year. Union Building for an application. The deadline for submission is Friday, April 9, 1999. Features available positions include: for commissions. you’re special because you’re fa- mous.” With delightful performances from an ensemble cast, EDtv makes its point clearly and in a way so engaging and funny, you hardly think you’re learn ing anything. McConaughey has a genuine smile that makes you believe Ed really is as ordinary as any of us. His turn from star-struck goofball to a nice guy who just wants to be left alone makes him all the more realistic. And it’s through this change that the audi ence realizes just how brutal sudden fame can be even if you are the one who chose it. Harrelson, who usually plays the obnoxious sidekick, starts out that way here, but ends up turning in a perfor mance a bit more substantial than usual. Elfman (better known as Dharma from Dharma and Greg), un fortunately gives birth to a character as irritating as all the polls say she is. The true surprise, however, is Ellen DeGeneres. Her comic timing hits pertect stride as she undertaKes a role that makes you forget all about her I sitcom fiasco. I At 121 minutes, EDtv is an hilari ous film with a timely message. Go see it. You’ll be amazed at what hap pens when actual famous people are given a script, props and a director. It sure beats a bunch of fake famous people sitting around yelling about whose turn it is to do the dishes. editors for the 1999-2000 Thursday, April I, 1999 - The Behrend College Beacon - * # ••••••• , Sit 10-6 Thursda KMart East Plaza Hours: M-F 10-9 * Read The Beacon every
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