By Biray Alsac
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 13, 1997

The truth about 'Telling Lies'

Photo courtesy of Banner Pictures Arizona Daily Wildcat Karchy Jonas (Brad Renfro, left) idolizes radio disc jockey Billy magic (Kevin Bacon) in Telling Lies In America.

"Telling Lies in America," which opens tomorrow night, is a new drama starring Kevin Bacon and Brad Renfro ("The Client"). Based on a true story, it's about a Hungarian immigrant boy's experiences in the world of rock 'n' roll radio and his assimilation into American society in the early 1960s. Karchy Jonas (Renfro) is a high school senior approaching graduation, who finds it hard to fit in with the "average" crowd. In order to feel accepted, Karchy adopts lying as his tool to get through each day. He lies about his future at Princeton to win the heart of a young lady. He lies to his friends about his father's occupation. He even lies to his favorite rock 'n' roll disc jockey, Billy Magic (Bacon), in order to win the vote into the High School Hall of Fame.

Billy Magic, a corrupt DJ, takes bribes from record labels to play songs on the radio, heavily involved in payola schemes. He takes Karchy under his wing and gives him a job that pays a $100 a week, more than his job at the grocery store. In other words, Billy Magic manipulates Karchy with his flashy car, sexy girls and loads of money in order to make him the middleman in this small time operation.

I'm not impressed. This film took too much time developing its plots and subplots and not getting anywhere with them. For example, the love story: Karchy tries to win the heart of the elegant young lady, Diney, by doing everything he can to impress her. Can someone in Hollywood explain to my why they would develop the plot if it ain't going nowhere? The love story doesn't even romantically blossom. It's dead from the beginning, when Karchy picks her up for the date wearing (what I thought to be) a nice red jacket and she says, "I hate red." Why bother? The date should have ended right there. Go home, people, there's nothing else to see.

Taking into consideration the fact that this story was based on real events, I realize that things wouldn't be fair and endings may not have been conclusive. But there needed to be more character development within the story in order for the viewer to feel any connection or sympathy. In the beginning, Karchy is a liar, and in the end, let's just say he doesn't tell the whole truth. The character doesn't learn anything, doesn't grow. We never bond with him enough to understand what he went through.

Another major character left underdeveloped was Billy Magic. Besides the fact that he never gets caught for the crime he is accused of, the audience is left not knowing whether he has become a stronger person or will just continue to be the cold-hearted DJ, going from one town to another, finding kids to lie for him, living his comfortable lifestyle.

The movie was very film noir-ish, using lots of darkness to increase intensity and mystery (I can't imagine why, because everything was painfully obvious). On a good note, however, it did have a great oldies soundtrack.

And in the end, perhaps it's not so difficult to figure out where to lay the blame here. The screenplay for "Telling Lies In America" was written by Joe Eszterhas - the same guy who brought us "Showgirls" and "Jade."