The Americanization of an immigrant teen from Hungary, under the tutelage of a rock-and-roll deejay in Cleveland (a/k/a "the Mistake on the Lake," or, to natives, "the Best Location in the Nation"), during the infamous days of payola: a past pretty near Medieval, it would appear, in its darkness. Joe Eszterhas's screenplay certainly draws a steady bead on a subject -- the inculcation of deceit as a way of life -- and it stalks it from several angles: idle boasting, daydreaming, forgery, perjury. Certainly, too, it is more "personal" than much of his work (Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct, Showgirls), but it still exhibits his muscle-flexing dialogue ("I think you're slicker than two snakes screwing in a barrel of snot"), and the characterizations are one-note. Brad Renfro, Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart, Maximilian Schell; directed by Guy Ferland. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
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