Bill Fishman's Tapeheads is a silly and slight satire on Hollywood, marketing and specifically the music video industry, being a film that is funny and full of energy, but never as seething or interesting as it could have been. The film is centered around Ivan Alexov (John Cusack) and Josh Tager (Tim Robbins), two rather directionless twenty-somethings who work as security guards. When they lose their jobs as security guards, they decide to start their own video production company, Video Aces, with Josh's talent serving as the artistic catalyst while Ivan tackles the business side of their new endeavor. Working on some less than inspiring projects at first, including a truly memorable rap-fueled commercial for Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, the two fight tooth and nail for their big break, soon crossing paths with Norman Mart, a presidential candidate whose got a private videotape that must not be seen by the public. While Tapeheads is a film that is hard to not appreciate due to the energetic performances by Tim Robins and John Cusack, the film's plot is rather banal, becoming far less interesting when the political candidate is introduced into the equation. The film's slight commentary on video production is the film's funniest and most engaging attribute, commenting on the objectification of woman, and "do something for nothing" mentality that runs rampant in the entertainment industry. This commentary is far from seething, being playful, but Tapeheads begins to lose my interest when it introduces the presidential candidate with the private videotape, something which Ivan and Josh had no idea was in their possession to begin with. The film touches on the vampirical nature of the music industry and Hollywood as a whole, this desire to have newcomers prove themselves by working for nothing, but Tapeheads is simply more concerned with its light, silly tone. This is a film that reeks of self-infatuation, almost as if the filmmakers felt they were making something far smarter and sharper than the end product. Featuring two earlier comedic performances by Tim Robbins and John Cusack, Tapeheads is a silly albeit slight film about the music industry that relies too heavily on exhausted cliches and tropes to be anything above serviceable.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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