One of the most striking aspects of the movie ivansxtc. is how lonely its main character, Ivan Beckman, is. Here is a man who makes his living in Hollywood, schmoozing with movie stars, partying with beautiful women, and brokering deals for major motion pictures, and he can’t connect with anyone around him. In his life, he’s more likely to receive oral sex from a woman on a penthouse balcony than he is to have a serious, sincere conversation.

The drugs have something to do with it, I think. When he’s not working, he’s usually partying, often with his clients, binge-drinking and snorting lots of cocaine. He has a reputation for prodigious drug use within the circles in which he runs, so much that when he dies in the opening minutes of the movie, his colleagues assume it’s drug-related. It’s not- Ivan dies of cancer.

From its opening minutes, ivansxtc. is an assured piece of moviemaking, content to take its time telling the story. Director Bernard Rose opens with a series of shots of Los Angeles, but since they’re shot on washed-out digital video much of the usual beauty is lost. The colors seem off, and it looks like you’re seeing the city through a hangover- fitting, considering the condition in which Ivan (played by Danny Huston) so often finds himself.

In an audacious move, we don’t even meet Ivan until twenty minutes into the movie. Aside from a few snatches of dialogue that are repeated later into the story and some anguished screams, we first experience Ivan after he has died, through the others in his life. When his coworkers find out, they assume that cancer is a cover story, and callously make light of his drug problems. Even when someone proposes a moment of silence, people can barely keep quiet for five seconds before talking business again and stressing the need for “damage control.”

Ivan, when he was alive, was a Hollywood agent, and a fairly powerful one at that. We first see him a few days before his death, chatting away on a cell phone while sitting on the table at the doctor’s office. He keeps so busy that the nurse practically has to snatch the phone away before taking his temperature. His latest project is setting up a picture called WEEDS for an up-and-coming young director (James Merendino) to star Don West (Peter Weller), an A-lister who has had recent P.R. troubles related to his homophobia.

It’s clear that Ivan doesn’t care about movies as art, or even entertainment. Like nearly all successful businesspeople, he only cares for what he’s selling as a product. He tells his girlfriend Charlotte (Lisa Enos) that he hasn’t even read the script for WEEDS, preferring to read the “coverage”- notes that studios have written on the script. Movies are his business, and his tools are his ever-present grin, a knack for flattery, and a ruthlessness that comes out behind closed doors. He’s also something of a showboat, as when he arranges to have a key call transferred to his boss’ office so that he can go in and listen to it on speaker phone in front of her.

Ivan’s life is his work. He often has a phone of some kind plastered against his ear, smoothing things over with a client. When he socializes, it’s to attend a premiere with Don, who he’s trying to wrangle from his current agent, and although Don’s latest movie looks like a direct-to-video potboiler, he’s quick to compliment everyone involved at the after-party. Even Charlotte is involved in the industry- she’s a fellow agent, albeit one who’s less successful than Ivan is. When they’re alone, they mostly talk about work, which is practical but doesn’t exactly allow them to bond on a deeper level.

Then Ivan finds out about the cancer in his lung. There have been signs before- shortness of breath, coughing up blood- but Ivan’s face still sinks when he gets the bad news from the doctor. So what does Ivan do? It’s tempting to say that he does nothing, but I think the whole point is that he feels powerless to do anything. He can’t negotiate his way out of this, and he can’t tell anyone about it, since he’s not that close to anyone. Closeness in Ivan’s world is letting Don West snort a line off Charlotte’s crotch, rather than opening up your soul to him. After all, when you’re partying with the rich and famous, the worst thing you could do is to be a killjoy.

Two of the movie’s most striking scenes come near the end. In the first one, Ivan takes Charlotte to have dinner with his father and sister Marcia. It’s clear that Ivan’s artistic family disapproves of his lifestyle, and while his father quietly discusses the morality of the business with his son, Marcia is more caustic, remarking disdainfully about Ivan’s latest “cokehead girlfriend” and telling him, “you’re drowning!” The conversation regresses into an argument between Ivan and Marcia, one that no doubt has been raging for decades, at least since Ivan settled into his current career.

The second scene comes when he is paid a visit in the middle of the night by two girls looking to party. They sit around in Ivan’s living room, snorting cocaine, popping ecstasy and making out, and eventually they start playing truth or dare. This indirectly leads to Ivan confessing his illness to these two girls he hardly knows, which is cathartic for him but also brings the party to a screeching halt. Shortly after they leave, Ivan’s condition worsens, and he is taken to the hospital to die.

The key to the movie’s success is Danny Huston’s performance as Ivan. Huston is the son of legendary filmmaker John Huston, and he shares his father’s imposing height and distinguished-sounding baritone. Huston goes through much of the story with a big smile plastered on his face, as if he’s always eager to please. However, he usually seems to be trying a bit too hard to be happy, and the grin is often hollow, even more so after he has found out about his cancer. In the final half-hour, he is smiling less and less as the reality sets in.

Also important to the effect of ivansxtc. is the direction by Bernard Rose. The story was partially inspired by the rise and fall of super-agent Jay Moloney (as well as Tolstoy’s THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH), and Hollywood was reluctant to make a film about the drug-fueled demise of one of its own. So Rose and actress/cowriter/producer Lisa Enos shot the film on digital video, casting their friends and setting it in their various homes. The result is arguably more successful than a more conventionally-made film would have been, as the digital video contributes both an intimacy and an immediacy that a large film camera and the necessary crew could not have provided. Likewise, digital video is capable of shooting at low light levels that would have been more difficult to shoot on film, so darker scenes could be shot with a minimum of fuss. The often gritty shooting style contrasts with Rose’s use of classical music throughout, notably “Prelude and Love-Death” from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, which he uses both at the beginning and during the climactic sequence, the slowly-building crescendo topping out at a key emotional moment.

After ivansxtc. was made, Creative Artists Agency, which once employed the ill-fated Jay Moloney, tried to block the movie from being shown, believing Rose’s work to portray their world in an unflattering way. Well, that’s the point of the film. Hollywood may be the dream factory, but for every kid who gets off the bus and becomes a movie star, there’s a machine that creates them, and this machine is made up of guys like Ivan Beckman. Show business may be about the show, but it’s primarily a business, and it’s a business that chews up lives and spits them back out. Compared to ivansxtc., most Hollywood stories feel like highlight reels.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD