Teenage Paparazzo

“We are wretched creatures, are we not?”………Troy

“If you can fake it here, you can fake it anywhere”……..Christopher Hitchens

If someone had told me that Adrian Grenier, who I formally regarded simply as a handsome visage in an ocean of the same, would produce and direct perhaps the most thought provoking and introspective documentary I would ever see, I would have……….I’m struggling to find a cliché’-ish metaphor here, so let’s just say I would have been suspicious at the least, and in fierce denial at the most. “Teenage Paparazzo” is exactly what I wanted, but did not get, from “The Social Network." An in depth look at how the cult of celebrity and self aggrandizement can warp and corrupt human beings, especially the young.

“Teenage Paparazzo,” manages to spin two yarns at once.  We are essentially watching a social experiment, when Grenier meets a fourteen year old paparazzi (coming from the Italian word for mosquito), named Austin, and follows him into the very strange, often pathetic world of celebrity worship.  Austin is a child of divorce, growing up in the entertainment nerve center of Hollywood, who dashes around town on his skateboard, making friends with much older creeps with cameras, and “spraying” movie stars with his own image capturer, which appears to be larger than his head.

Grenier shows genuine concern and interest for Austin’s well being.  They form something resembling a friendship as Austin does his “job,” and as Grenier attempts to see the industry, which has given him so much, through the eyes of a fame-less person.  We explore both capital cities of the "Axis Of Glamour" (NY and LA), and witness the almost "military industrial complex" nature of the connection between celebrities, the paparazzi, and the massive eruption of star focused gossip media.

Grenier uses his connections to his advantage, getting surprisingly insightful information regarding this phenomenon from everyone from learned academics, to Lindsay Lohan.  Matt Damon recounts a rather sickening anecdote about just how low people will sink into the gutter to get a provocative shot.  We also are introduced to a true parasite, who vaguely resembles a person, who has been “papping” for decades, and seems to be one of those creatures who believes there is no world outside New York City.  Hear this now: This movie is an absolutely fascinating look behind the scenes, of what happens behind the scenes.

Grenier then holds up a mirror to himself, and then points it at us, and what we see is shattering, and almost ugly.  Using the testimony of the young and the grown, along with some very alarming statistics, we learn just how insidious and pervasive the media overload has become, especially with the impressionable. We see the obsessions it gives birth to, and the effect it has had on us. Some of what you learn from this movie will unsettle you, but not surprise you.

It may be the case, that I am possibly the only person in the universe who has never seen an episode of American Idol.  I'm not even close to kidding.  Watching delusional people make fools of themselves for the pleasure of millions of gawkers seems to me to be a very sadistic pastime, and symptomatic of these strange days.  This movie points out the plain truth that today, people celebrate the demise of dreamers and icons as often, if not more so, as they do their ascension.  The loathsome impulse that drives people to buy magazines, which mock very human flaws like acne and cellulite, has created a new industry of trash.  This cannot go on, but it almost certainly will.

As for Austin, Grenier does his best to push the lad away from self-absorbance, with mixed results.  This is an important movie for the reasons above, but most of all, because we witness the positive metamorphosis of a person.  Someone once said that everyone is the hero of his own story.  It will be difficult to watch Austin for the majority of this film, and think of him as heroic. However, it is much easier to think of him as enterprising and brave.

Have I ever had fantasies involving improbable success and fame because there are people who enjoy my blogs? Of course, I have.  I consider being a dreamer, however zealous, to be a blessing, and also a requisite for any creative endeavor.  In the information age, it has become clear that there are armies of people who want their voices to be heard, your humble blogger being among them.  Austin and Grenier have pulled this off.  I believe we all should shoot not for fame, but for timelessness. In a way, social media has given us the chance to be “famous” on a smaller scale.  Facebook is the Us Weekly that features us.  “Ian was here and he loved movies,” is what I want the crux of my work here to say.  What will yours say?  I’m curious to find out.

- Magistrate Dunham