Dreamers on AllMovie

A bittersweet satire about Hollywood's bottomless capacity for corruption, Dreamers follows the travails of two friends who leave their small Tennessee town for Tinsletown. Opening with a view of Hollywood through the lens of an Asian tourist's video camera accompanied by the movie-loving tourist's ramblings, the film cuts to Jefferson City, Tennessee, where two boys indulge in fantasies of fleeing to L.A. Several years later, one of those boys, Dave (Jeremy Jordan), is heading west to join his childhood friend Ethan (Mark Ballou) in Hollywood. Ethan has spent the past five years trying unsuccessfully to finish his untitled film, scraping together a living as an Amway salesman and construction worker. Following his arrival, Dave finds brief work on a porn set before being fired, and, as part of an attempt to help Ethan find funding for his movie, loses his virginity to a lusty Beverly Hills housewife (Ruth de Sosa). Dreamers is directed by Chinese native Ann Lu and features the late, great Paul Bartel in one of his last screen roles.