The Real Blonde

The Real Blonde is set against the backdrop of the fashion and entertainment industry in Manhattan. Joe (Matthew Modine) earns a pittance as a waiter with an exclusive caterer, but has for years been trying to break through as an actor. He lives with Mary (Catherine Keener), whose career as a beautician is doing much better. For eight years she has provided most of the income and this gets her increasingly frustrated. Joe wants to work, but places high demands on himself. His lack of success however becomes painful when his friend and colleague Bob (Maxwell Caulfield) suddenly becomes a soap star. But Bob too has his unfulfilled desires: he wants to find a real blonde. He goes through a whole row of them, among them his soap co-star Kelly (Darryl Hannah). Meanwhile, Joe feels forced to take a humiliating bit-part in a Madonna video and this puts him in touch with Madonna double Tina (Elizabeth Berkley).In his fifth and most ambitious film so far, Tom DiCillo gives a humorous turn to the struggle for integrity in a world dominated by superficiality and artifice. The Real Blonde is full of sharp dialogues about sexism, it comprises an attack reminiscent of Woody Allen on Holocaust revisionism and plenty of jokes about turns of the plot in soap series. A choice selection of (independent) stars take part, including Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd.