''Telling Lies in America'' is a 1997

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

set film directed by

Guy Ferland Guy Ferland (born February 18, 1966) is an American film and television director. Career After Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film ''Notorious'' inspired him to become a filmmaker, Ferland went on to study cinema production at the University of Southe ...

and written by Joe Eszterhas.

Plot

Karchy Jonas is a 17-year-old high-school student (who emigrated from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

7 years earlier) trying to find his way in the world. He meets radio personality Billy Magic who takes him under his wing. However, authorities are after Billy for accepting

payola Payola, in the music industry, is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under US law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to play on the air as spons ...

from record companies to give their songs air time. Billy picks Karchy, as when he figures out Karchy cheated to win his radio contest, he realizes he would be perfect to associate with Magic's scam. Karchy does so, not realizing that this may jeopardize him and his father's U.S. citizenship. He pursues a co-worker at a local grocery store where he works, only to find out she was engaged all along. Karchy idolizes Billy only to find out how corrupted, bitter and cynical he truly is.

Cast

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

as Billy Magic * Brad Renfro as Karchy 'Chucky'/'Slick' Jonas *

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film '' Judgment at Nuremberg'', ...

as Dr. Istvan Jonas *

Calista Flockhart Calista Kay Flockhart (born November 11, 1964) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for portraying the title character on the Fox television series '' Ally McBeal'' (1997–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe Award in 199 ...

as Diney Majeski *

Paul Dooley Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', '' Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, ...

as Father Norton *

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Jonathan Rhys Meyers (born Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keeffe; 27 July 1977) is an Irish actor, model and musician. He is known for his roles in the films ''Michael Collins'' (1996), '' Velvet Goldmine'' (1998), ''Titus'' (1999), '' Bend It Like ...

as Kevin Boyle *

Luke Wilson Luke Cunningham Wilson (born September 21, 1971) is an American actor known for his roles in films such as ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), ''My Dog Skip'' (2000), '' Legally Blonde'' (2001), ''The Royal Tenenbaums'' (2001), ''Id ...

as Henry * Damen Fletcher as Amos 'Blood Smith' * Jerry Swindall as Andy 'Croak' Stas *

K.K. Dodds K. K. Dodds (born 1965) is an American actress best known for playing Susan Hollander on the Fox drama '' Prison Break'' and for her roles in the films ''Soldier'' and ''A Life Less Ordinary''. Career She appeared in such television shows as '' ...

as Justine * James Kisicki as Cecil Simms * J.J. Horna as The Blind Kid * Ben Saypol as Timmy Morelli * Tony Devon as Danny Hogan * Rohn Thomas as Sgt. Disapri * Tuesday Knight as WHK Receptionist

Production

Eszterhas wrote the film in 1983 under the title ''Magic Man'' but could not sell it. Later on his second wife read the script and suggested he revisit it. "It was so moving, so good, I couldn't believe it hadn't been made," she said. "I thought it was too good to be sitting on a shelf. I thought the relationship between Karchy and his father wasn't entirely worked out." Eszterhas rewrote the script and sold it to Banner Entertainment. The writer gave up his $100,000 fee so Max Schell could play a role. According to the website Splitsider, actor

John Candy John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian actor and comedian known mainly for his work in Hollywood films. Candy rose to fame in the 1970s as a member of the Toronto branch of the Second City and its '' SCTV'' seri ...

was considered for the role of Billy Magic. The film was shot in 24 days during August 1996 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

Reception

''Telling Lies in America'' received mixed to positive reviews from critics. It holds a 61% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.93/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Box office

The film was released in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

opened at #22 at the box office and grossed $11,470. The film would end with a domestic gross of $318,809.

Accolades

The film won Special Recognition award at the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

in 1997.

Home media

The film was released in DVD on April 25, 2000. The film was released as part of a Blu-ray Disc double feature with ''

Traveller Traveler(s), traveller(s), The Traveler(s), or The Traveller(s) may refer to: People Generic terms *One engaged in travel * Explorer, one who searches for the purpose of discovery of information or resources * Nomad, a member of a community wit ...

'' from

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

on May 25, 2012. It is also included on streaming service,

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Telling Lies In America 1997 films 1990s coming-of-age drama films American coming-of-age drama films Films directed by Guy Ferland Films set in Cleveland Films set in the 1960s Films shot in Cleveland Films with screenplays by Joe Eszterhas 1997 drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films