Delirious
Delirious
NR | 15 August 2007 (USA)
Delirious Trailers

Les, a small-time celebrity photographer desperate to make it big, befriends Toby, a homeless young man with no direction except a vague desire to become an actor. When by chance, Toby becomes romantically involved with K'Harma Leeds, the hottest pop star of the moment, Les grows jealous and plots revenge.

Reviews
Gurlyndrobb

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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Kirandeep Yoder

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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Frances Chung

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Yvonne Jodi

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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SnoopyStyle

Toby Grace (Michael Pitt) is a homeless actor wannabe. Les Galantine (Steve Buscemi) is a paparazzi. While Les is waiting for pop diva K'harma Leeds (Allison Lohman), Toby helps K'harma get away. Later, Toby becomes Les' assistant and even friend. However when K'harma pretends that Toby is her hook-up, Les is blocked from backstage and is angered. Toby befriends K'harma and is invited to her birthday party. He brings Les along as a favor. At the party, Les starts taking pictures and they're both thrown out. Toby and Les breakup. Eventually Toby becomes famous and a jealous Les vows to kill him.Steve Buscemi is too angry, too pathetic, and too annoying to watch. It's a silly Hollywood stereotype of the loner creepy paparazzi loser. Michael Pitt doesn't show the necessary star presence. He needs to be more than a pretty boy. Alison Lohman is even less believable as a pop star. It doesn't help that her songs sound so bad. It could have been interesting to have a dark ending but the movie force a happy ending anyways. Tom DiCillo delivers little more than a passable B-movie.

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tedhinshaw

This film has it all. The characters in the film aren't two-dimensional which is a breath of fresh air. I mean they really have soul. These characters have been damaged in some way in their lives but all have a redeeming quality that has you wanting more! The script is an original masterpiece. The lighting and photography are exquisitely dark and real. The editing is humorously witty: a paper is thrown down in one scene and a bomb goes off on the television in the next, which sets up the emotional tension in the next scene exquisitely (you'll recognize this if you see the picture)!!! I especially enjoyed listening to the director give his take on the DVD as the movie plays. He has his "doctor" there to supervise him with thorazine, an occasional shot of JD whiskey, how cool is that! I guess you might say, who knows what is real or unreal about life anyhow!? He could really be crazy, I doubt that!! So you essentially get two movies for the price of one. A fine movie and wonderful bonus: ability to see the movie again with director commentary. Just Brilliant. I must say that Steve Buscemi's acting is exquisite. He could have been a great silent film era actor, All one has to do is turn the sound off and watch his expressions. Not over acted but superbly expressed with a realistic demeanor. Love this actor!!! Not a handsome actor but a real one, which I prefer over the prior.Please, if you have any cinematographic artistic LOVE in your spine, don't you dare miss DELIRIOUS!!!

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hughman55

Calling all Steve Buscemi fans! I started watching this movie on cable quite by accident. In the opening scene I thought I recognized a friend of mine in a minor role and while waiting for him to reappear and see if it was in fact him I found myself captivated with this brilliant little indie until the end. Steve Buscemi is one of the best, and most interesting, American actors today. (Check him out in his early role as Nick in "Parting Glances" from 1985.) He elevates the level of every movie he does. Although, this film doesn't need any help from him. It's good. REALLY good. It is a character study. And as with most character studies the characters studied are somewhat unpleasant and maybe not very sympathetic. But in this movie they are well worth taking a closer look at.Les Galantine (Steve Buscemi) is the dregs of the paparazzi. He lives in a crap hole apartment in a bad neighborhood and the only thing worse than the neighborhood he lives in is the inside of his apartment. He has horrible parents whom he still visits and has attachments to. And when we see the three of them together it is very sad. A homeless guy named Toby (Michael Pitt) weasels his way into Les's life, and his crap hole apartment, and is eventually promoted from non-rent-paying roommate who sleeps in the closet to paparazzi's assistant. Had enough yet? There's more. Wait until K'Harma Leeds, pop diva, shows up with her entourage. At one point we see her sitting before a Magnus Chord Organ, (like the one I got for Christmas in 1974), composing her next hit. When we later see her perform it at a music awards show we realize what a joke it was that she agonized over whether to use the word "searching" or "looking" because her ONLY talent is that she lip syncs and dances like a stripper, i.e. a pop diva. The relationship between Les Galantine and Toby is the centerpiece of the story. Les is needy and repulsive all at the same time. He perspires desperation and fear of abandonment. Toby, goes with the flow. And the flow eventually takes him from homeless guy, to pop diva hanger oner, to star of his own really really bad TV show called "Toby" where he plays a homeless serial killer, named Toby. And just a quick reminder here, his name in real life is Toby. This show is so bad they couldn't even be bothered to imagine a different name for the main character so they just used the name of it's "star". His rise to stardom, his romantic intrigues, and his "go with the flow" style of living, are all expertly written as commentary on the vapid lives and personalities of people who are famous for being famous. The writing and directing, by Tom Dicillo, is witty, poignant, and surgical in it's precision. There is not a wasted word or moment anywhere.Steve Buscemi is great in everything he does. He is brilliant in "Delirious" . Michael Pitt plays Toby with a warmth and sympathy that makes the process of getting a closer look at those around him tolerable. Honestly, I don't think I'm in the "Michael Pitt demographic", and I've never really gotten him as an actor, until this film. He expertly ties all the disparate elements of these characters, Les Galantine, the talentless pop diva (Allison Lohman), the casting agent (Gina Gershon) and their stories, together in a very compelling performance. I have way big respect for him now...It is not explicitly spelled out but I would like to go on record here to say that I think Les Galantine is gay and in love with Toby. And although that's not central to the story line it does inform us, somewhat, about this sad injured creature. Steve Buscemi, as Les Galantine, is hard to watch and hard to pull away from from beginning to end. That's talent. Equal credit has to go to the writer/director Tom Dicillo. The story, sometimes mocking, sometimes tender, is written and executed perfectly. The pace is perfect. When it's done you don't even know where the time went. If you like well made, interesting movies, with gobs of talent from beginning to end, watch this one. The ending will surprise you, and the journey is well worth it no matter what. By the way, my friend was not in this movie, and the character I thought he was playing never showed up again...

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sioenroux

I love Michael Pitt, which is the main reason I gave this a chance. I'm glad I did, because it was a sweet, very light romantic comedy with a fantasy-type touch.Some of the scenes of Pitt are astonishingly beautiful, and the story, although straightforward and predictable, takes a backseat to the storytelling... lush, frothy and warm.I'm not as gushing as some of the other commenters, mostly because some of the dialogue was stilted and a few of the scenes fell flat (especially the more "personal" moments between Steve Buscemi and Pitt), but all in all, this is a light-hearted romance that leaves you feeling good inside.Shouldn't we want that from movies sometimes?

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