SOMEWHERE
It isn’t much fun being famous. That, at least, is what Sofia Coppola’s new film suggests. Its main character is Johnny Marco. He is a movie star who has it all: money, a sports car, his choice of sexual partners. He lives in the Château Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. His idea of home entertainment is to hire pole dancers who cavort in front of him as he lies in a stupor on his bed. Everybody wants a piece of Johnny. The irony is that his life is lonely and dysfunctional. The key moment comes when Johnny’s ex-wife tells him she is going out of town, leaving him to look after his 11-year-old daughter, Cleo. With a kid on his hands, the movie star has to modify his hedonistic lifestyle at least a little. Predictably, he realises she means more to him than sex, gambling and booze.
Coppola’s achievement is to have made an affecting and quietly funny film about such an unsympathetic character. Somehow, she makes us care about the existential angst of a pampered celebrity living a deeply superficial life. (Geoffrey Macnab)
- Stephen Dorff - Johnny Marco
- Elle Fanning - Cleo
- Chris Pontius - Sammy
- Michelle Monaghan - Rebecca
- Sofia Coppola
- Harris Savides
- Ronni Brown
- Sarah Flack
- Phoenix
- Anne Ross
- Stacey Battat
Focus Features International
