Flemish teen triumph

>> Everybody's Famous sends up pop stardom

by JOANNE LATIMER

"Sometimes to get a big break, you have to break a few laws," says the promotional slogan for Everybody's Famous (groan). No, this isn't a David Spade film, as the SWAT team of American PR folk would have you think. Despite this miserable slogan, Everybody's Famous is a clever Flemish film that mocks the pre-fab celebrity of Britney Spears and Sugar Jones.

Any film that stars an overweight 17-year-old girl isn't going to be American--not unless she eventually goes on a crash diet under the supervision of Alicia Silverstone or John Waters is directing. But there's no way Marva (Eva Van der Gucht), our anti-heroine, will get buff. She's a glum girl with an angelic singing voice and her looks deflect too much attention from her talent. Only her dad, Jean (Josse de Pauw) notices, and he turns into the stage dad from hell, projecting his own ambitions onto Marva. His job in a glass factory doesn't keep him from humming original tunes into a tape recorder as he tries to write Marva a hit song. The family watches the local Search for the Stars show on TV each week, silently dreaming of the day Marva will get her crack at celebrity. Marva's mom, the practical one, is caught between her sullen teenage daughter and her dream-driven husband.

The beautiful and talented Debbie (played by Thekla Reutena, a dead ringer for figure skater Katerina Witt) is the iconic Britney Spears of the story. Even a Flemish film can be excused a Spears character in a film about girlhood celebrity. Yet Debbie is a frustrated mechanic who hates the lonely life of a pop star. When the glass factory declares bankruptcy, Jean goes off the rails. He becomes embroiled in a kidnapping caper involving Debbie's sleazy agent, and Jean goes all the way to help Marva get her shot at fame. Talent agents everywhere will wince at how Deruddere portrays their heartless self-interest toward the "talent."

As ridiculously boring as this sounds, director Dominique Deruddere is immune to the stereotypical filming style of Hollywood movies about teen triumph. The result is entirely original. Everybody's Famous is a wake-up jolt of energy, reminding me of the heroically subtle Muriel's Wedding. I can't imagine a better film to show up the false critique of the star system in America's Sweethearts. Side by side, Everybody's Famous deserves the bow.

Everybody's Famous opens Friday, July 27