Green Lights
An Ithaca Movies presentation. Produced by Robert H. Lieberman.
Executive producers, Robert Worth, Eliot Lieberman, John Dietershagen.
Directed, written by Robert H. Lieberman.
Bob Beeman - John FitzGibbon
Alex - Daniel Dresner
Jimmy - Shawn Randall
Wendell - Joel Leffert
Flossie - Mimi Bensinger
Julie - Karen Rockower
Chad - Tim True
Himself - Sam Harris
Sonny - Jim Burne
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By SCOTT FOUNDAS
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In making "Green Lights," debut helmer Robert H.
Lieberman achieves spectacularly funny results by substituting warmth,
wonder and merriment for the oppressive cynicism inherent in the
Hollywood insider comedy. Pic understands why audiences love movies,
and shares that awestruck sentiment without being naive. Though it
lacks big stars, a whiz-kid director or a particularly high concept,
in a just world this delightful romp would meet with the same
word-of-mouth success as the low-key "My Big Fat Greek
Wedding."
"Green Lights" delivers the small town-meets-Hollywood
vibe David Mamet was shooting for with the failed "State and
Main." It's the story of Bob Beeman (John FitzGibbon), an
affable, daydreaming location scout for the New York City offices of
Everest Pictures, one of the film industry's biggest studios. Beeman
has the job as a result of his being married to the sister (the very
funny Mimi Bensinger) of one of Everest's top executives (Joel
Leffert, who suggests a great, hunched-over bald eagle). But when
Beeman descends on the sleepy college town of Ithaca to assess
potential locations for an upcoming Everest big-budgeter (entitled
"Virgin Blood"), news of his arrival spreads through the
hamlet, and in no time, he's mistaken for an important film producer,
and ambushed by a steady stream of auditioning wannabes even as he
checks into his roadside motel.Just when it looks like this is going
to be a one-joke comedy, Lieberman plays on Beeman's character to add
depth; "Green Lights" is not just about a case of mistaken
identity, but about the way Beeman comes to enjoy the attention, the
way that fancying himself a producer gives him a hint of the dignity
he's never really been awarded. And FitzGibbon, a wonderfully
wide-eyed comic actor whose expressiveness and gift for physical
comedy recalls Terry Keiser of the "Weekend at Bernie's"
movies, is more than up to the task of carrying the action. Among
those to pitch themselves at Beeman are the screenwriting (and
songwriting) team of Jimmy (Daniel Dresner) and Alex (Shawn Randall),
who've written a musical called "Julio," about a poor kid
from Spanish Harlem who dreams of becoming a cab driver. It's one of
those great, absurd movies-within-movies, like the nudie musical from
"S.O.B.," made all the funnier by the fact that it's so
frighteningly close to a movie Hollywood actually made:
"Newsies."
Beeman gets hooked on the idea -- it reminds him of his own father who
was a cabbie -- and when Everest balks at making the film, Beeman
can't bring himself to break the bad news to his new friends. They
will make the picture, he declares, right there in Ithaca!
Though he initially plays their over-enthusiasm for laughs, Lieberman
(an Ithacan himself) doesn't present the locals as a bunch of hicks.
They're savvy enough about the filmmaking process to not be
hornswoggled, and when Beeman solicits investors at a local Rotary
Club meeting, the skeptical potential backers ask all the right
questions. Moreover, Beeman himself is more than a comic patsy: when
we see him working as a location scout, he's good at what he does;
then, when he segues to the role of producer, he's pretty good at that
too.
"Green Lights" may invoke Capra in its big-hearted treatment
of characters and its ability to mix pathos with the laughter, but it
never gets too mawkish. Moreover,at the 90-minute mark, it has good
sense to wrap things up while it's still on a roll.
With his white suit, broad Panama hat and even broader, irrepressible
grin, Beeman suggests a modern-day "Music Man," come to
sprinkle a little magic over a town where not much exciting happens.
The townsfolk, composed mostly of locally cast thesps and
non-professionals, is equally winning.
Shooting in digital video with the documentary cameraman Slawomir
Grunberg, Lieberman gets upstate New York right, down to the
wood-paneled kitchens and linoleum floors. Pic is peppered with some
delightful visual gags, like a limousine pulling up to a house with a
goat tethered in the front yard, and a corporate logo that's a witty
parody of Paramount. And there's a nice hat-tip to the famed Wharton
Studios, which made a name for itself making movies in Ithaca at the
dawn of American filmmaking.
Camera (DuArt color, digital video-to-35mm), Slawomir Grunberg;
editor, Brian Truglio; music, Jesse Krebs; costume designer, Kate
Duffy; sound, Brian Truglio; associate producers, Gunilla Lieberman,
Beth O'Brien, Truglio, Tom Corey. Reviewed at Dances With Films
Festival (competing), July 13, 2002. Running time: 92
MIN.
