CELEBRITY

• Starring Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis and Leonardo DiCaprio
• Directed by Woody Allen
• Rated R, with profanity and sexual references; running time 113 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 8

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Nov. 20, 1998) -- "You can tell a lot about a society by who it chooses to celebrate," says Judy Davis in Woody Allen's new film, Celebrity.

If Allen's take on fame is as accurate as I suspect it is, then our society's getting in line behind the dodo bird.

Celebrity is a biting satire that explores the silly reasons people become famous today -- and the even sillier way they behave.

Movie stars, writers, politicians, business tycoons, basketball players, supermodels, artists, plastic surgeons, tabloid talk-show hosts, religious leaders, and upscale hookers parade the runway in this off-beat comedy.

In one sequence, a rabbi and a gang of skinheads are thrown together in a talk-show green room, and the only argument is over who ate the bagels.

Apparently inspired by Fellini's La Dolce Vita and a year's subscription to People magazine -- not to mention his own travails -- writer-director Allen revels in the flashy, trashy world of misplaced acclaim and self-absorbed behavior.

Then, slyly, he gives it the ultimate sheen of self-importance by filming it in black and white.

Allen doesn't appear in Celebrity. He chooses a curious proxy for the role that might have been his: Kenneth Branagh, who daringly assumes Allen's rumpled, corduroy persona and trademark nervous stammer.

Branagh plays cocky, disillusioned Lee Simon, a journalist who passionately pursues the famous while never achieving any fame himself.

While the cocky and disillusioned Lee struggles to rub shoulders with celebrities, his insecure ex-wife, Robin (Judy Davis), works just as hard to sidestep them.

Yet both are caught in the maelstrom. Robin falls in love with a TV producer and is soon being escorted to chic functions, including a party at Elaine's. Before you know it, she's got a gig as a society reporter.

Meanwhile, Lee's interviews are foiled by stars with other agendas.

There's the actress (Melanie Griffith) who offers to service him in the bedroom of her childhood home.

And then, in the film's most electrifying sequence, there's Leo.

Lee "takes a meeting" with a young superstar (Leonardo Di Caprio). But as Lee arrives, the star is trashing his hotel room and slapping his girlfriend around. The star then takes Lee in tow for a cocaine-fueled "road trip" to the gambling casinos of Atlantic City.

The sequence is edgy, energetic and hilarious -- with a brilliant, though brief, turn by Di Caprio.

A few scenes fall flat, perhaps because they're too obviously setups for laughter.

In one, Lee drops into his high school reunion, and briefly eyes the bland, everyday, nonfamous people he devoutly hopes never to be. In another, an upscale call girl (Bebe Neuwirth) uses a banana to teach Robin how to perform oral sex.

But except for those misguided moments, Celebrity is high-quality Woody Allen, a sharp-edged, funny look at the fickle flirtations of fame.