It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. Child movie stars who are bestowed titles of being the next great actor/actress end up being chewed up and spit out by Hollywood. Instead of being stars in Oscar fare, they end up being stars on celebrity rehab shows or infomercials. That frustration for some builds up and leads to some grave consequences. In Eric Troop & Jim Lane’s Deadly Famous, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what those consequences entail. Such as becoming friends with Eric Roberts.
Alan Miller (Daniel O’Meara) is a former child actor now locked out of Hollywood mainstream. He turns to being an acting teacher and doing coke with Eric Roberts (Eric Roberts). Alan has also begun documenting his life via handheld camera, and has rented out his guestroom to a beautiful aspiring actress named Pamela (Jackie Moore). Alan in turn has grown infatuated with Pamela. But when she spurns his advances and begins to gain some success in her career, Alan’s obsession turns deadly.
Being that this is yet another found-footage film (I know, I know), I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. In this case, however, the gimmick works to the benefit of O’Meara. Alan is definitely off his rocker, and the addition of him filming his life just adds another segment of insanity to an already kooky performance by O’Meara. O’Meara manages for the most part to avoid venturing into over-the-top territory, all the while maintaining a sense of explosive anger just below the surface which makes Alan truly frightening. There’s just enough relatable frustration to garner a bit of sympathy, which in turn makes the character work. Jackie Moore also does a great job in her role as Pamela, keeping her character grounded and keeping up with O’Meara’s performance. Eric Roberts does what Eric Roberts does.
As expected, as Alan becomes unglued, his penchant for increasing brutality ups its game. Picking up and assaulting prostitutes is one thing, choking out potential starlets with cellophane and tying them up to force feed them is another. Needless to say, it’s quite disturbing. Torture porn fans will certainly have a field day with Alan’s antics, and the gore is executed quite well for a low budget affair like this one.
Unfortunately, the focus on O’Meara’s character is also a pitfall in Deadly Famous. Apart from Jackie Moore’s Pamela, the film’s focus on Alan doesn’t leave much development of other characters. These characters in turn only exist to react to Alan, and become fodder if needed. Also, while O’Meara does manage to taper Alan’s craziness, it does venture into the campy area at some points (such as the sequence near the end involving Rhonda). I know that some reviewers have likened Alan to American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman, but unlike Alan, there’s a noticeable progression of Bateman’s insanity from the start of American Psycho. In Deadly Famous, Alan’s already at his breaking point with his anger. True, not every character that has to show progression has to follow the mold that Christian Bale followed, but there should still be a noticeable contrast from beginning to end. This all in turn makes the Alan’s appeal start to wane as the film progresses, threatening to turn the film into an 89-minute chore.
Deadly Famous is one of those mixed bags of a film. While Eric Troop & Jim Lane manage to get the found footage to work thanks to O’Meara’s character, the constant focus on the character, as well as a lack of strong secondary characters, hurts the overall experience. While fans of the torture porn genre will get more out of this than the rest, there’s still something worthwhile for those interested in this film’s concept. Just temper your expectations accordingly.