Telling Lies in America

1997

Drama / Music

7
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 67% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 45% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 2588 2.6K

immigrant disc jockey radio money citizenship nostalgic

Director

Guy Ferland Photo
Guy Ferland

Top cast

Kevin Bacon Photo
Kevin Bacon as Billy Magic
Maximilian Schell Photo
Maximilian Schell as Dr. Istvan Jonas
Paul Dooley Photo
Paul Dooley as Father Norton
Billy Lockwood Photo
Billy Lockwood as Musician: Blood Smith and the Tenderloins
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
933.93 MB
1280*548
English 2.0
PG-13
us  
29.97 fps
1 hr 41 min
Seeds 1
1.69 GB
1918*820
English 2.0
PG-13
us  
29.97 fps
1 hr 41 min
Seeds 7

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by wrxsti54 6 / 10

Teen boy snarled up in Payola

Telling Lies in America is a semi historically accurate examination of the late 50s/early 60s payola scandal told via a fictitious hustling DJ Billie Magic (Kevin Bacon) who comes to a Cleveland Top 40 radio station as his 4th station in 3 years. His tactic: hire a high school boy via a "Man of the School" competition won via the kid voted in the most mailed-in post cards. Billy rightly figures the winner usually forged most of the signatures and so would be the ideal young bag man for the payola cash envelopes.Enter 17 year old Hungarian refugee Karchy Jonas (Brad Renfro) eager to graduate and be popular at an exclusive Catholic school that his law professor father Istvan Jonas (Maximillian Schell) struggles to afford via a working class job. Billy showers Karchy with high pay, fancy meals, offers of entry to Broadcasting School, lets him drive his fancy Cadillac convertible and hires a classy hooker to seduce him. Karchy falls for an older girl Diney (Calister Flockhart) at his previous work and gets a record contract via Billy for his black singer friend Amos (Damien Fletcher). When the police come investigating Billy, they threaten Karchy and his dad with being denied US citizenship if he doesn't implicate Billy in payola. You will have to watch the movie to see with how Karchy threads that needle.The movie is carried by Bacon who knocks it out if the park as the epitome of a sleazy morally bankrupt DJ. Schell is solid as always. Renfro by then was a Hollywood darling at only 14 with all the right looks. Whilst he's a great actor, he's a bit out of place in this movie trying to play a high school senior and a Hungarian refugee supposedly only in the US for seven years. And having him dating Flockhart's character when Calista was almost 20 years older than Brad....hmmm, somewhat of a casting mismatch. Overall an OK movie with a cool ending.
Reviewed by jotix100 7 / 10

"Telling Lies in America" is a film that seems to have gone directly to video. It certainly deserved a wider audience because what Guy Ferland, the director does with the screen play Joe Eszterhas wrote for the film. Mr. Eszterhas is a man that can write, although some of his efforts have misfired.If you haven't seen the film, perhaps you should stop reading here.The basic problem with the film is the casting of Brad Renfro as the main character of the film. While this actor is not a bad actor, he seems miscast as this Karchy Jonas. Most comments in this forum focus on the fact Karchy has no accent, but having been in Cleveland for about seven years, explain that he already has a command of the language. Yes, he might stumble upon certain words, as shown in the film, but basically the character is believable. The only thing is that Mr. Renfro looks an older fourteen, rather than the seventeen he is in the film.This fact becomes painfully apparent in his relationship with Diney, and with the older woman Billy decides to have him experience sex for the first time. We are not saying it's not possible, because it can easily have been the case, which might have been derived from an experience of Mr. Eszterhas life.The other thing that doesn't ring true is the relationship between Karchy and his father. It appears that he can do whatever he wants and it's OK with the old man. Usually in the case of immigrant families, it's just the opposite. People immigrating to this country tend to be more protective, demanding discipline and obedience that is nowhere to be seen in the film. Also, Karchy's behavior in school would have probably grounded him forever, but it never comes into play.The marvelous Kevin Bacon is the best asset this film has going for itself. Not only is Mr. Bacon the most versatile of the current actors working in films, he brings such an intelligent take to his take on Billy Magic, the DJ of the local radio station that sees right through the lies Karchy Jonas tells. Being a liar himself, Billy can pick a liar whenever he sees one, as is the case when he meets Jonas. Billy Magic has no scruples. He takes money from the record companies, but he has Karchy pick the envelopes.The cast is good. Maximilian Schell, plays the father, Dr. Jonas, a man so decent, one wonders where did Karchy go wrong. He seems to be a loving father, albeit a distant one. Is it perhaps the fact that the son has embraced the American culture with too much gusto? That might explain the difference, although Karchy is never disrespectful to the old man.Calista Flockhart is seen as Diney, the mousy worker at the poultry shop where young Karchy works after school. Ms. Flockhart is perfect as the older girl that inspires love in the young man. Luke Wilson is seen as the man in charge of the shop. Paul Dooley makes a wonderful Father Norton, the man who dares put Karchy in his place.Notable in the film is the use of the popular songs that one hears in the sound track. It made perfect sense the use of those tunes since the background is a popular radio station that catered to teenagers.This is a film that should be seen by more people because of the good work the director and screen writer have done.
Reviewed by helpless_dancer 7 / 10

Ever felt like an outsider? Sure, lots of times.

Interesting and well done look at the American pop scene in the sexy sixties. Featuring a oversexed, insecure loser named Karchy who teams up with another oversexed loser disc jockey intent on preying and playing just one more gig in the nowhere business of top 40 music. The charismatic DJ, a burned out cynic, has a history of using unpopular teens to make illegal profits or to cheat them in business deals; which, of course, continues as he rolls into a new town amid a flurry of excitement and adulation. As the rollicking DJ and the impressionable teen play out their drama, another is occurring as Karchy tries to woo an older woman who, for some reason, shows an interest in the love struck teen. Different from most of the gunk coming out today: well worth seeing.
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