A Tale of Two Coreys

Last night I watched the Lifetime movie "A Tale of Two Coreys," yet another tiresome story of promising Hollywood careers derailed by drug use. The promising Hollywood careers that got derailed were those of young actors Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, who met while appearing in the film "The Lost Boys," became bosom buddies and were frequently bracketed in teen-idol magazines as "The Two Coreys." The Lifetime movie about then was directed by Steven Huffaker from a script by an even larger writing committee than usual: the story is credited to Feldman himself along with Tejal Desai, Jeffrey Schenck. Peter Sullivan and Henry Wassenburger, and Schenck, Sullivan, Wassenburger and Jessica Dube are credited with the screenplay (and on screen the writers' names are linked with ampersands rather than the word "and," meaning that they all worked on the script together instead of taking it over relay-style one from the other). It's narrated in flashbacks by both Feldman, who's still alive and sat for an interview that was taped and aired after the movie; and Haim, who died from pneumonia in 2010 after a lifelong struggle with drug abuse. The producers and casting directors Dean E. Frank and Donald Paul Penrick double-cast the parts of Feldman and Haim, with Elijah Marcano and Justin Ellings playing Feldman and Haim (in that order) as teenagers and Scott Bosely and Casey Leach playing them as adults. Elijah Marcano is a hauntingly beautiful young man who doesn't look either like the real Corey Feldman in his teens - quite frankly, his ethereal baby face and long brown hair would have made him better casting for a biopic of David Cassidy than of Corey Feldman - and he also doesn't look like he'd grow up to be the nice-bodied but rather hatchet-faced Scott Bosely. Justin Ellings doesn't look like he'll grow up to look like his adult counterpart, Casey Leach, though for my money Leach was by far the sexiest of the four: tall, blond, muscular, butch and also quite strikingly reminiscent of the surviving film of the older Corey Haim.

For the most part "A Tale of Two Coreys" is a pretty-standard issue "Behnd the Music" story of a promising young talent (in this case, two promising young talents) wrecking their careers by partying, clubbing, sex, drinking and, most destructively, drugging. But there are two distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from most addiction narratives. One is how vividly it demonstrates that child actors are really commodities, controlled both by their bosses and their parents; in one chilling scene, Feldman comes home after three classmates bullied and badly beat him when he bragged to them about landing a major movie role - and his mom sees the bruises on his face and, rather than say anything supportive, chews him out for having got into a fight that bruised his highly valuable face and risked him getting replaced in that big role. Both Feldman and Haim came from broken homes; Feldman's parents divorced before he started his career and Haim's broke up while he was just taking off as a young actor - and Feldman's dad was an aspiring rock musician and his son's manager until Feldman abruptly fired him after realizing his dad was just taking his money and pushing him off into quick-buck projects that would bring in short-term income but be bad for his long-term career. The breaking point came when Feldman's good friend Michael Jackson told him it was stupid for Feldman to appear on the quiz show "The Hollywood Squares" because "that's something you do at the end of your career," but dad remained firm that Feldman do that show and not even Michael Jackson himself, dressed in the costume he wore on the cover of Bad and played by Brandon Howard (who looks "blacker" than the real Jackson did at that point but gets the famously whispery speaking voice down pat), can talk Feldman père out of pushing his son onto a humiliating gig.

The other unusual part of this film - and one which makes it particularly relevant in the so-called "moment" in which America in general and Hollywood in particular are becoming more aware of, and more sensitive to, charges of sexual harassment and the heads of once-powerful people are rolling as they get ousted from their jobs and positions of power following revelations of their records of sexual misconduct over the years - is the allegation that both Feldman and Haim were raped early in their careers, before they were over the age of consent, by the people who were supposedly on the sets of their films to chaperone and protect them. Indeed, though the story is only obliquely hinted at in the movie itself, Feldman is more explicit about it in his post-film intervie2, saying that both straight and Gay pedophilia is the real dark secret of Hollywood. Though he's still too scared of the man who raped him to mention his name - he says the man is still a power player in the industry and could literally have him killed, which is why, he told his interviewer, he has at least one bodyguard (and usually more than one) on duty all the time, including at home when he sleeps - he describes himself as "a man on a mission" to expose the rampant pedophilia in Hollywood and drive its perpetrators from power. Given that memoirs of classic Hollywood have exposed such legendary names from the past as David O. Selznick, Arthur Freed and John Huston as pedophiles, I can readily believe everything Feldman is saying. Both the film and Feldman's post-film interview make clear that not only is the "casting couch" alive and well, but young men are as likely to be the victims of it as young women

Both "Corey's" are certainly great actors. But this film is a straight up "no", better yet a huge "NO". This film makes me upset. Why?

But correct me if I'm wrong but this story seems to be told only from Corey Feldman's point of view.Basically one sided. And my issue is, what makes him think that he has every right to say what happened in Corey Hiam's life when most of the time he wasn't there. Sure we know about the drugs and the sex and the abuse that was going on from both homes. But come on Feldman you could have done better than this.

However I do like how he explains that Michael Jackson was a kind gentle person ( as we the audience and some knew already ). And I really liked that. But on Corey Haim's part, I don't think the film did him any justice. Yes they were best friends but the film could have been a little less BS and I just wish this film wasn't all for how Corey Feldman "believes" he was a good friend to Corey Haim.

What I like best about the film is the nostalgic feeling of the 80's and seeing it through the perspective of the Coreys. Although I must admit I wonder how much of this film is truly through the eyes of Corey Haim. After all, It's been 8 years since his passing, so it's not like he can have a say on it's accuracy. But for the most part it does paint a pretty picture for Corey Feldman in comparison to Corey Haim. Albeit it was interesting to get an idea of how they met and basically relive the 80's with them. Which was quite fun for me being that I'm the same age range as the Coreys.

However, regardless of my nostalgic childhood bias, I can't ignore the fact that the direction of the film was half fast.The casting was weak, especially for Corey Feldman. Not only did Elijah Marcano not look like Feldman, which is forgivable, but he definitely did not embodied the energy of Corey Feldman. I've seen enough behind the scenes interviews, commentary and the like to know what Feldog is like. This kid was too laid back and mediocre at best. Shame on the director for not pushing him more. The pacing of the film is somewhat basic. It almost feels like a scripted documentary rather than a movie at times. Also I felt the music was a tiny bit over done at times.

In a nut shell I wouldn't expect too much if you are planning to see this film. It's very basic and a good watch if you are curious about the Coreys in general. But you'll probably get a lot more accuracy just from some basic online research. Hopefully the movie will inspire you to do just that. The movie gets a pass, it's just a shame that the movie wasn't as entertaining as it could be if given better direction. Because the story of the Coreys is very interesting from a documentary standpoint. So imagine if you truly stylized their story in the form of a really good movie. What a shame.

Don't bother with this movie there is no moral to the story what's so ever, no climax to story, simply BLAND! Wasted an hour and a half of my life.......

As I wrote in the headline, the subject of this film is interesting but the script, the actors'direction and the actors are really mediocre. It's a pity because it would be interesting to show in a "good movie" how this cinematographic system crushes live of those young stars.