Mondo Hollywoodland (2021) Film Review
Hollywood is a strange place. And it’s safe to say this goes beyond a geographical and physical perspective. Hollywood is actually more of a culture, and it’s one strange culture. One that breeds and evolves magnificently throughout the years and always manages to come out triumphantly.
Now imagine telling the story of what drives Hollywood people to be Hollywood people. Where do they get this spirit? What are they looking for? Where are the winners and losers of Tinseltown’s side plot of failure, treason and deception?
My very personal consideration of a culture like Hollywood led me to watch Mondo Hollywoodland as an original stumble in an existential crossroad by a filmmaker that definitely has stories to tell.
Whether I liked it or not, is almost not important. This isn’t a film about the effect of a story. It’s not a character study about surviving in a town we know everything about.
It’s a reflection of the twisted expressions in America’s rotten but beautiful landscape of stardom.
You have never seen a film like this one.
I won’t delve much into what’s the story in Mondo Hollywoodland. Personally, I don’t think it even matters.
In the same vein of some experimental filmmaking that came out in the 60s, Mondo Hollywoodland tells the story of a mushroom dealer and man from another dimension (the 5th actually) as they travel through Los Angeles trying to find the meaning of “mondo”. If you know what that word conveys, then you know this film is an actual exploration of Hollywood with a gritty lens of psychedelia, bizarre behavior, and all things that make LA a perfect nucleus for everything that’s art.
Shot in a sort of documentary style (the title is a fun variation of Robert Carl Cohen’s 1967 documentary), Mondo Hollywoodland is a fun and aggressive journey into what constitutes this land of fallen stars.
It’s a comedy, a satirical take on counterculture and how it conforms to a story in itself. We are aware that Janek Ambros is going for an exaggerated style of storytelling, but we can’t stop thinking some of these stories could actually be true. It’s not a film based on the realism of this city, but a twisted reality of what it ideally should be.
The film’s third act does make up for a lack of structure. What people could reject from the film is actually “solved” in the closure by a dark rendition of justice. It’s not ideal, but Mondo Hollywoodland simply plays to a different tune. The way Ambros awakens the drive to collectively critique the extremism of some social movements is admirable.
Ambros has to be proud of his film. Even if critics hate it or love it, the arguments can vary and they can actually be valid, even if they are different from each other.
Regardless of some genre inconsistency, Mondo Hollywoodland is interesting. And the best thing about it? You want to talk about, and we all know that if you want to get to Hollywood, you should make films that arouse viewers to discuss among themselves.
So Great Hollywood is a strange place. And it’s safe to say this goes beyond a geographical and physical perspective. Hollywood is actually more of a culture, and it’s one strange culture. One that breeds and evolves magnificently throughout the years and always manages to come out triumphantly.