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The aptly named Duff sisters, Hilary and Haylie, star in Material Girls. This alleged comedy is actually a "fluffy saccharine mess" that sees the girls as vapid LA socialites forced to take a reality check after losing their fortune. Critics ripped it up like last year's Gucci dress and its target audience of young women stayed away, probably glued to TV coverage of the latest Paris Hilton scandal.
Flannel
Director Martha Coolidge offers no good reasons for making this film in a Making Of featurette. She says only, "I'm in a mood to do those kind of movies right now." The kind that make you want to gouge your own eyes out? We can only guess. It turns out that this project began life as a spec script - ie, written as a speculative venture, but more surprising is the fact that it was re-written by Jessica O'Toole and Amy Rardin, who even have the nerve to boast about it. Even the Duff sisters struggle to explain the point of this film, Haylie eventually concluding that, "It's about having respect for yourself, or standing up for yourself and stuff like that." And suddenly Spice World looks like Citizen Kane.
There's more waffle from the Duff sisters in Getting To Know Hilary And Haylie. Apart from thinking it might be "fun" to work together, they also jumped at the opportunity to spend quality time with their dogs off the set. Between takes they even fashioned a large doghouse out of a cardboard box, which has nothing to do with the film, but who wants to talk about that? However, Hilary is quick to point out that, unlike their onscreen alter egos, the Duffs are not all about "superficiality". Like, totally...
The Material World
In her director's commentary, Coolidge talks a little about the intensive research that was required for this film - mostly trawling the bars and clubs of LA. That's where she sourced a lot of her extras, but for authenticity it was important to throw in a few famous faces into the mix. That's where Olympic athlete Carl Lewis comes in handy, and Coolidge points him out just in case you'd forgotten what he looked like. What's more impressive is that Coolidge managed to land Anjelica Huston for a supporting role. It turns out they're old friends, so the veteran actress took no offence when Coolidge explained why she thought Huston would be perfect for the role, ie "She was God. She was Dick Cheney."
Hilary Duff's music video for Play With Fire pads out the bonus menu and, it has to be said, boasts all the production values of a Gaviscon ad. On the whole this package is as scanty as an It girl's party dress.
EXTRA FEATURES
Material Girls DVD is released on Monday 9th 2007.
