Fame-ish

Written and directed by Jeff Nimoy, Fame-ish follows washed-up voice actor Jeff Nimoy (Nimoy) as he reluctantly agrees to spend the weekend at an anime convention in Wisconsin. It’s a workable premise that’s employed to mostly ineffective and, eventually, interminable effect by Nimoy, as the filmmaker delivers an often extraordinarily thin storyline that grows less and less interesting as time progresses – with the picture’s distressing lack of momentum exacerbated by a midsection devoted almost entirely to Nimoy’s tedious sexual exploits. (The creepy subplot involving an 18-year-old who keeps throwing herself at the 50something Nimoy is hardly as charming and lighthearted as the director has intended, with these icky scenes ultimately indicative of the movie’s misguided and wrongheaded sensibilities.) Fame-ish‘s failure is especially disappointing given the relative effectiveness of its opening stretch, as Nimoy does a decent job of exploring the inner workings of an anime convention and developing the various individuals, both participants and celebrities, that attend such events (ie the movie, at the outset, provides an eye-opening peek into a world completely alien to most viewers). The final result is an endeavor that might have worked as a briskly-paced short but palpably crashes and burns as a full-length feature, with Nimoy’s less-than-stylish visuals (and oddly unappealing presence) merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of Fame-ish‘s underwhelming attributes.

* out of ****