Movie Review: Undiscovered
Aug 27, 2005 - By CHRISTY LEMIRE (AP Movie Critic)
Undiscovered feels more like a pilot for a glossy nighttime soap on Fox - probably one that would be canceled midseason - than a feature film with even a modicum of discernible originality or depth.
A gaggle of hip, pretty people, all aspiring actors or singers or musicians, prowl around Los Angeles, where they're photographed with suitably edgy hand-held camerawork and swathed in the flattering glow of neon light. (Director Meiert Avis has shot videos for Jennifer Lopez and U2, and it shows.)
They go on auditions, they hang out at the Viper Room. Magically, they can afford apartments at the beach. Some of them are attracted to each other. All of them get their back stories out of the way with expository dialogue like, "His work defies classification ... he wants to make it, but on his own terms."
You'd be justified in confusing it with "Unscripted," George Clooney's quasi-fictional HBO series about struggling L.A. actors, or "Entourage," yet another in-the-know HBO series about an actor who's no longer struggling, and is now surrounded by his hanger-on buddies.
You might end up TiVoing it by accident, just because it came on after "The O.C." (and was so heavily promoted, you couldn't escape it). Or maybe you really wanted to watch it for the guilty-pleasure factor, just because it looked like "Melrose Place," without the pool.





