Desperate

So hip it hurts, the first film from Martinez, 'a Chinese-Filipino/Mexican-American', chronicles the desperate lives and times of Troy and Tan-Yah: fame-fetishists, losers hooked on bogus dreams, desperate for success. When we first meet them, Tan-Yah (Ghee) is Tina Toilet, a would-be punk singer with pseudo-English accent and attitude to match, while Troy (Christ) is desperately over-extended in an investment pyramid that's about to crash. It's 1979, a desperate year. Cut to 1984 - a desperate year - and Tan-Yah Tempter's Heavy Metal thing doesn't happen. The 'Big New Hair' is a washout, the record deal a bust. Troy's acting career climaxes at the bottom: porno, steroids, liposuction, collagen injections. Both know that making it is murder. It's 1989, a desperate year... At 90 minutes, this is exactly 75 minutes too long (we all deserve 15 minutes, okay?). For a film about 'now', it is laboured, repetitive, derivative. In a word, desperate.