20-plus years in the making, Richard Keith’s mockumentary, Wannabe: All Washed Up, is a follow-up to 2005’s Wannabe, which Film Threat reviewed oh so long ago. It attempts to answer the question that is on everyone’s lips: what happened to Steve Williams? And an even more pressing question: who is Steve Williams?
Steve Williams (Craig Robert Young) had his fifteen minutes back in the ’90s as part of a boy band known as The Bug Boyz (covered in the first film). Wannabe followed Steve’s dubious attempt to break into Hollywood after the demise of the band. That was over twenty years ago. He’s still in Los Angeles, still auditioning — having gotten himself canceled along the way — and still convinced the next gig will be the one that puts him back on top.
Now a grand opportunity presents itself. After being humiliated by the first documentary, directed by Kate Hastings (Susan Duerden), Steve and his producer, Jay (Dan Mailley), decide to make a feature film based on Wannabe (where Steve plays himself) and produce a documentary about the making of the remake, once again directed by Kate Hastings.
Joining Steve on the project is his one-time rival, Paul Stannard (Adam Huss), who has now patched up his beef with Steve and agreed to star as himself in the feature film. As with all indie films (and documentaries), funding is an issue, and as the project pulls itself together, Steve is forced to take any and all roles thrown his way, including a prison drama written by Jacque Black (Eric Shani), in which he plays a gay neo-Nazi (what could go wrong?).
“Steve and his producer, Jay, decide to make a feature film based on Wannabe and produce a documentary about the making of the remake”
Compounding Steve’s problems, his ex-girlfriend Molly (Anna Becker) returns, thinking she’s going to play herself in the movie, only to learn she is too old — but not old enough for the documentary. In tow is her teen daughter, whose father is either Steve or Paul.
Full disclosure: even though Film Threat reviewed Wannabe back in the day, I had never seen it. It doesn’t matter. Wannabe: All Washed Up catches you up pretty quickly and places you right where you need to be. While Steve was a young, idealistic actor in 2005, today he’s a washed-up middle-aged actor who still holds on to his dream in an industry that has given up on him. Most of the documentary places Steve in crazy situations and lets his never-give-up, wannabe-actor personality take over. Nothing is impossible for Steve to accomplish, even though he can’t catch a single break. And the moment he does get one, he either screws it up himself or some choice he made long ago comes back to rear its ugly head. In this case, the ugly head is his daughter — who, for the record, does not have an ugly head.
First off, Wannabe: All Washed Up is a whole lot of fun, littered with humorous moments we can laugh at because normal people, like you and me, have this morbid need to watch anyone who desires to be in the Hollywood game become a victim of their own pretension. Steve is likable enough because he wants success so badly; he’s willing to compromise his values. It’s not just Steve either; it’s everyone. All wannabes randomly colliding in the Hollywood rat race.
Richard Keith develops a smart script and a smart story. What I appreciate is that everything about this movie feels improvised, yet no one is forcing the action, the comedy, or the punchline. Never at any time is anyone winking at the audience, declaring they told a joke. Everything plays out and unravels just as it should. That’s what makes these mockumentaries work — the moment you try to go for the joke, you come off as a hack copying the Christopher Guest playbook. Great fun is to be had in this low-budget indie gem.
"…he plays a gay neo-Nazi (what could go wrong?)..."
