A Lot to Talk About I

I've been getting some e-mails wondering why I haven't yet commented on the new reality series, On the Lot. Truth is, I wanted to wait for the series to get some heft beneath it before I chimed in. In the first week, it was scattered and bloated, trying to do in two episodes what American Idol does over the course of several weeks. Now that the finalists have been whittled down to a select few, the true shape of the show can be seen. I am enjoying it, even if it’s plagued with the usual reality melodramatics and hang-ups. Still, it could be a lot of fun, especially as the contestants are given more time and depth to flex their wings—something that will only come as the dross is cleaned away.

Speaking of dross, Carolina Zorilla De San Martin and her cell phone delivery deserved to go. For that matter, so did my NYU classmate Jessica Brillhart (no, I don’t know her, but wasn’t that shot of her walking past our Tisch building on Broadway during her bio great!); her light bulb pic was silly and not a little bit pretentious. The voters decided to give her another chance. Don’t screw it up NYU. I was sorry to see Claudia La Bianca go, not because she made a great film but because she was from my former home of three years, Sicily. It was sad and remarkable how it seemed that the women were getting picked off one by one last night.

Phil Hawkins didn’t deserve to go home already; his 911 call may not have been all that funny, but it did show beautiful promise that we will now never see. The shock of the night, the—dare I say it—Sanjaya moment of the show was when Kenny Luby and his abominable cabbie film survived the cut. What in the world did the voters see in his utterly ridiculous waste of a minute of my life? His days are numbered.

Most of the films and filmmakers showed a lot of promise, even if there was too much reliance on potty humor. Unlike the judges, I really liked Trevor James’ A Golf Story. I also liked Will Bigham’s Lucky Penny, Adam Stein’s Dance Man, Sam Friedlander’s Replication Theory, and Shira-Lee Shalit’s Check Out. However, I don’t think that anyone can argue with the fact that it was Zach Lipovsky’s night with Danger Zone, a short consisting of a single, 360 degree take around a hellish laboratory. I can’t wait to see what Zach makes next, though I hope he has both style and substance as only the later dramas will reveal.

Stay tuned…