Film 99 (Goal: 300) of 2024

Ooft.. I knew this was going to be bad going in but I like Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny and while he's never been my favourite actor, he comes across as extremely intelligent and knowledgeable about cinema and the process. So with that in mind, I was hoping that this would be one of those cases where I would connect with this film. Unfortunately this was not the case.

Fool's Paradise wants to be a love letter to a long gone golden age of Hollywood, when there was still a magic and mystique to Tinsel Town, while also being a satire, picking apart the craziness of the celebrity status. The decision to make the lead, played by Charlie Day, a mute was not a good one. Sure, the point could be made, that it adds to the satire - that you are pulled from person to person, place to place like an object in this crazy world of show business. But for a movie viewing experience, it sucks all the life out of the film.

Charlie Day's moves from scene to scene, while things happen around him and recognisable actors step in and then step out, without anything being added or achieved. It's the same issues that recent big ensemble films (not that this is one of those) like Hail, Caesar!, Amsterdam, Babylon had as well. Where there is no real connective thread or plot, the lead just steps from place to place aimlessly or without purpose and it's more about the moment of the cameo, then anything.

There's an argument that Ken Jeong is the actual lead, as he goes on a story arc but he's just not interesting enough to keep the audience invested. So by the time his arc ends, the film falls flat.

Fool's Paradise is an ultimately forgettable peek behind the curtain of some of the madness of what it is to be within the everchanging world of Hollywood. And while some of the ideas are creative, nothing really sticks and all interesting threads are either cut too soon, or are immediately lifeless.