Movie Assessment: Zeroville Is A Bizarre and Embarrassing Search for James Franco
The Pitch: Based mostly on Steve Erickson’s cult novel a few loner weirdo who bounces round New Hollywood, Zeroville follows a skinhead Zelig determine who all the time lucks into legendary environment. After being mistaken for one of many Manson crew by detectives (performed by Mike Starr and Danny McBride, whom the movie sorely misses when their one scene is up), bald former seminarian Vikar (James Franco) falls in with a few ne’er-do-wells who drag him into the underbelly of the fabled Simple Riders/Raging Bulls period of filmmaking. He drinks and surfs with Viking man (Seth Rogen doing his John Milius impression), learns edit from lonely Dotty (Jacki Weaver), and falls head over heels for zaftig also-ran Soledad (Megan Fox). His infatuation for the actress who can’t catch a break leads him to chop away from his job modifying Apocalypse Now (to say the movie performs quick and unfastened with dates and information could be a historic understatement) to go edit her newest movie for a megalomaniacal producer (Will Ferrell, in one other, funnier film). Their romance can solely finish tragically, because the fixed references to George Stevens’ 1951 movie A Place within the Solar preserve reminding us.
