Home Performing Arts The Canyons starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen, moral decay in Los...

The Canyons starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen, moral decay in Los Angeles. Art following Lindsay’s life?

SHARE
The Canyons starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen.
The Canyons starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen.

With all the talk out of the way and the production finally under way, actress Lindsay Lohan‘s new vehicle, ‘The Canyons’ may or may not help reignite the young starlet’s stalled career as she plays a brash sartorial version of her real life persona tinged with 1970’s porn ethos, strobing red lights, mounds of cocaine and the familiar tale of young people looking for comfort and stardom who have abandoned society’s moral codes.

The tagline of the movie itself as written by Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader comes with the pulsating tagline: ‘Where the sex is as cheap as the budget…and the only way out is death!’

Of course the first questions that run through this author’s mind was who said these characters or the many similarly real life obsessed ones (Ms Lohan included) ever want out in the first place? In a culture that places a premium on looks, material comfort and possessions and the achievement of dramatic aspirations (porn star heart throb, Hollywood actress, social pimp and best friend to these creatures who on the side finances all their deals) such fodder strikes one as a contradiction as the characters earnestly pursue the only recourse to self validation in their imagination possible.

The teaser itself is literally just that, a tease, with hitherto references to a bygone era (did porn movies, prostitution, murder and cocaine only ever exist in the 1970’s or is that just the director’s way to distance the drama that all too familiarly resembles the real life drama of its main star?) with stylized motifs and admittedly hilarious accoutrements (silver briefs, gold rimmed hot tub) whilst in the background the unbelievable visage of a tearful Lindsay Lohan is seen metaphorically hulking the set looking for meaning in a plot that has no meaning as much as the actress is looking for meaning in a career, industry and town that by default has no real meaning to begin with except as the teaser suggests, to simply get out alive with enough money in one’s bank account and perhaps some sanity.

In short it’s art copying life, that is Lindsay Lohan’s broken life. It will be interesting to see if audiences buy into the latest hoopla starring the usual femme fatales. As an aside real life porn star James Deen turns in an eye catching performance, then again like his co star, Lilo he’s had plenty of chances to practice being the real thing that he aspires to be in real life….

SHARE