10th May2014

The Canyons – Film

by timbaros
images-162Lindsay Lohan is, believe it or not, the one bright spot in the new film The Canyons, a film that is otherwise poorly acted, poorly told, and is just a plan bad film about a bunch of young adults surviving and trying to live the Hollywood dream.
Lohan plays Tara, a young woman who gets by on her good looks and her ability (and luck) to sleep with very good looking guys. She lives with Christian (adult film star James Deen), a sexy but cocky young man who has everything he wants, including a home in the Hollywood Hills, and his own film studio, all thanks to his very rich grandparents. Tara and Christian amuse themselves by inviting young men into their homes and having threesomes, or at other times inviting other couples into their bedroom.
Christian and Tara’s relationship is complicated because Tara’s ex-boyfriend Ryan (Nolan Gerard Funk) still loves her, three years after they broke up. Ryan lives with his current girlfriend Gina (Amanda Brooks), who happens to work at the same film studio that Christian owns. Ryan is a struggling actor, making ends meet by bartending and doing odd jobs, but he is soon cast in a new movie that is being produced by Christian’s studio, but when Christian finds out that Tara and Ryan are sleeping around, he gets revenge.
The plot, and the characters, get sillier as the film goes on, even more so when Christian resorts to murdering an innocent yoga teacher who has ties to both Tara and Ryan.
The Canyons could’ve been a contender. It’s directed by Paul Schrader, who gave us American Gigolo, and it’s written by Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote the book American Psycho. Ellis also wrote the book Less Than Zero, a film about Hollywood kids involved in the drug culture in 1990’s Hollywood. Less Than Zero starred lots of up and coming actors, including Robert Downey Jr. The Canyons cast is less than stellar. While Lohan is the ‘big name’ in the movie, and she does pull off her role, suffering and sexy all at the same time, it’s the rest of the cast that can’t act to save their lives. And as mentioned  before, the plot spirals from worse to worse. Director Gus Van Sant makes an appearance as Christian’s therapist, but not even him can save this film. Schrader should know better than to make a movie this bad, he’s been a Hollywood writer/director for decades, so it’s a wonder what made him do this film. And he’s not directed a good film in decades (well, not since 1980’s American Gigolo). As for The Canyons, the only redeeming features are Lohan’s performance, and seeing James Deen naked.