Review: ‘Delusions of Guinevere’ cautions on pitfalls of YouTube fame
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An often-amusing cautionary tale about the perils of social media, “Delusions of Guinevere” is a savvy if uneven satire about a struggling 29-year-old actress whose career peaked two decades earlier.
Ariana Bernstein, also one of the film’s co-writers, plays the delusional title character in question: an overweight former child star who seems destined to be forever known as “The Geleé Girl” from the popular gelatin dessert commercials she appeared in as a kid.
No longer willing to be subjected to humiliating auditions and even more humiliating “innovative theater stuff,” she reinvents herself as a YouTube sensation with a little help from her friends, but that gambit for newfound fame comes at a price.
Director Joanna Bowzer employs a casually sardonic touch that serves the material well until a fateful plot point ultimately sends “Delusions of Guinevere” veering irreversibly off-course into darker, less rewarding terrain.
Despite that unsuccessful tonal shift, the comedy serves as a crisp calling card for Bernstein, an empathetic, spirited newcomer.
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“Delusions of Guinevere”
MPAA rating: None.
Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes.
Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood.
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