Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss (2004) Reviews

• female pimp juice

  whoTheFuqRyou2004-04-10

  This came on a late night on U.S.A. and I immediately noticed Jamie-Lynn DiScala from the Sopranos so I decided to watch. I was rather surprised to see her in a role like the one she had in this. Had a nice little plot that kept me tuned in, had some really sexy scenes for a movie that comes on USA... Very reminiscent to Boogie Nights and Blow, Jamie-Lynn holds her own as a cut-throat businesswoman in a surprisingly flashy movie - for a TV movie, this one DOES contain some nudity and heavy drug use. nice movie about the high class prostitution rings from the eyes of a young woman - Lynn DiScala's character was nicely developed throughout the movie and she brought Heidi Fleiss's story to life cool, decent stuff 8/10

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• Sexy Flash with No Substance and a Poorly Cast Leading Lady

  poomyatta2004-03-30

  If you've never heard of Heidi Fleiss, the enterprising young woman who went from adolescent party girl to high profile prostitute and became Tinseltown's richest and most famous madame within the span of just a few years, this fast paced made for television drama will fill you in on all the sordid details. What it won't do is help you understand people like Fleiss or care in the least abut her or any of her associates. Norman Snider's script offers few insights into the madame's motivations, though to his credit, he wisely avoids the heavy handed moralizing I expected. Director Charles McDougall's constantly moving camera and slick, quick cuts make the movie look like a 90 minute music video. The combined result is a constantly interesting but rarely emotionally engaging tour through Fleiss's world of seduction and betrayal. The film often seems like little more than an excuse to show sexy babes modeling skimpy lingerie, lounging around the pool in their bikinis, or servicing clients in carefully edited softcore sex scenes. It's all entertaining fluff, but I found myself wishing for a bit more substance underneath all the superficial gloss. The film's biggest problem can be summed up best in just three words: Jamie-Lynn DiScala. This young actress seems competent enough playing the pampered daughter of a mob boss on THE SOPRANOS, but then I doubt that role would be much of a stretch for a lady who was apparently so obsessed with her own appearance she suffered from a type of bulimia for years. To the best of my knowledge, the Fleiss character is DiScala's first serious adult role and I'm sorry to say she doesn't exactly rise to the challenge. Her idea of portraying a confident, calculating woman is to parade through the film wearing the same vapid smirk on her face in practically every single scene. Her performance is so staggeringly unconvincing it drags down the whole production to the dramatic level of a sixth grade classroom play. In an interview in TV GUIDE, DiScala herself openly admits she wasn't able to relate to the Fleiss character. She goes on to say she discussed the film's sexual content with the director and told him `I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this.' She also divulges that during one of the sex scenes, she broke into tears and had to be replaced by a body double, even though no on-screen nudity was required. These confessions are very sweet and precious, but they do beg the obvious question: why would she accept the leading role in a film about a prostitute if she was so nervous about doing erotic scenes? Did she even bother reading the script before signing the contract? DiScala claims she trimmed down by 15 pounds for the part, an admittedly serious health risk for a former bulimic. But considering how awkward she looks throughout this movie, her torturous physical preparation for the role only reveals how utterly warped her priorities are as an actress. My advice to Ms. DiScala is skip the dieting in the future and instead concentrate on some acting method classes. Or better yet, stick to playing pouty adolescent princesses and leave the serious adult roles for real actresses. In a way, though, I suppose DiScala's presence in this film is ultimately appropriate. Both she and the movie as a whole look extremely sexy but fail to display one iota of depth.

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• Jaime-Lynn can't act!

  caspian19782004-06-17

  For starters, a movie like this should have been produced to air on cable. That way, sex scenes, foul language and nudity could have been used to save this film. How can you tell a story about prostitution and drugs in LA with PG rated material? Somehow, the network showed some new wave style of nudity that showed very little with fast paced editing and dissolves. It was nice to see Ms. Jaime-Lynn in a role like this, I only wish she had more to work with. Still, the casting for this film was terrible. The Casting Director should be questioned by a congressional panel on why the actors in this movie were terrible. On a serious note, I feel bad that Jaime-Lynn did not hit a home run with this movie. From here, she has to prove herself with some gritty independent features to make herself stand out among the other mediocre actors of her generation.

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• Heidi has the same problems that most of us can relate to!

  meccano2004-04-27

  **Spoiler Warning! ** While the title pretty much spells out this movie, please be advised that specific plots points are discussed herein. `Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss' is a story that involves my two favorite things: sex and cash. Now, according to some, that may make me morally challenged, but c'mon, we've all gotta work. USA Cable Network's Heidi makes it seem like a good cash business in this retelling of the infamous Hollywood Madame's story. This incarnation of Heidi Fleiss is played by the fabulous what's her name from HBO's `The Sopranos.' What can you say about her performance? She almost looks like Heidi Fleiss, she memorized her lines real good and in theory that Sopranos gig gives her, and by default this movie, some street cred. `Call Me' is not some rerun episode of `Cops.' `Cops' can do a real good job at putting a downer on anyone's sex for cash fascination. Here though, Heidi's girls aren't a bunch of frightening crack whores from the depths of the local trailer parks offering `Johns' a half- and-half for twenty bucks. Twenty bucks? Wait a minute here! Heidi's girls, -er, I mean ladies, have all their teeth, thank you, and the yellowing of the skin from Hepatitis has not begun to show. In Heidi's world, sex for cash means $5,000 a night. And as Heidi says in the movie, `That's per girl. Plus a little spending money for shopping. And I'm gonna need money for their plane tickets too if you want them in Vegas tonight.' `Leave 'em happy.' Isn't that what B.T. Barnum or Samuel Goldwyn said? Or was it `Keep 'em wanting more?' Well whatever, you get the idea. This movie really put me in the fabulous world that is Heidi Fleiss. Just imagine the days sitting around the pool at Heidi's house sipping cocktails up in the Hollywood Hills, while `Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun' plays over and over again on the radio. Need to go to the doctor-wink, wink-no problem. Heidi's father Dr. Paul Fleiss (who is played here by Saul Rubinek who'll you will recognize from somewhere, but won't really care enough to put you finger on it) is a sweet pediatrician with a little office over in Silver Lake. He's like your own little dr. grandpa. He'll hook you up. Give him a freebie and tell him Heidi sent you. Speaking of drugs, I don't approve of all the coke (lower `c', not the brand name cola) that goes on in this movie. Maybe its because this is a made for cable movie and they wanted to push the envelope, but all this coke snorting has got to go. Geezus Heidi you're givin' me a headache! Sure it keeps you skinny so you could eat whatever you want.hey wait a minute. stay skinny.eat what ever I want.work all night.sleep all day. Hey, since when did I become such a Puritan? What really makes this story so heartwarming is that Heidi has the same problems that most of us can relate to. She's too young. She has WAY too much cash. She has all the business she wants. She's all coked out. She forgets to pay off the police. Did you pay the phone bill? Yeah. The mortgage? Umm..yes. Cash payment to the police? Oh, sweet mother of God.I forgot! It seems Heidi learned so much from here previous employer, Madame Alex, but in the end she forgot the most important lesson of them all. Pay off the cops! Throw the LAPD a bone now and then and no one gets hurt. In regards to Heidi's previous employer, Madame Alex, she is NOT the kind of Madame that you'd wanna turn tricks for. She is old and ugly. Yuck! She is fat and doesn't get out of bed. And that smell.holly merde! I understand why all the girls left her for fun loving, albeit coked out, Heidi Fleiss. To make matters worse, Madame Alex has some vague Germanic accent and calls Heidi a `little Jew *itch' when she gets made at her. Think of Nurse Diesel from `High Anxiety' and you've got Madame Alex. I give the first part of `Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss FOUR STARS. Tivo past the rest of the jail, court, loses everything and rehab part unless getting bummed out is your thing. I'm going back to Heidi's pool, where Juanita the house keeper is more than glad to freshen up whatever you're drinking. Here's my idea: Let's pretend she never got busted and turn it into a weekly series with special guest star ala `The Love Boat' and `Fantasy Island' Ms. Fleiss. Madame Heidi, you can `Call Me' anytime. I am already a BIG fan!

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• To much sex, not enough character development-movie had no edge.

  triple82004-04-21

  Lets face it, this story is a sleazy one and when you tune in you know your not gonna see a story about little bo peep. But even knowing this, I was not prepared for the DEPTH of the sleaziness. Firstly-to many shots of Heidi fleiss having sex. WHO CARES? I mean everyone knows Heidi fleiss has had sex in her life-why feel the need to make a movie about it? This was called "the rise and fall of Heidi fleiss" not Heidi fleiss having a lot of sex. Secondly-I couldn't buy into some of this stuff-I'm not saying it didn't happen like this but...Heidi fleiss REALLY found girls to work for her by standing outside high schools and approaching females? I was a bit skeptical but hey what do I know... Thirdly-the character of Heidi just got on my nerves after awhile-I thought this movie might be a character sudy and that would be OK and make up for the sleaze factor-only it wasn't. I think the makers were trying to do the "little girl lost" thing but all it did was make me really not like Heidi fleiss-especially when she stole her former boss's business. In fact I almost turned off the movie there. The Charlie sheen clone thing was tacky and tasteless. In fact the whole movie was pretty much the same. I like TV movies about real people if their done well. I like character studies. What we had here was lots of hookers looking sexy and numerous shots of Heidi having sex and double crossing people and not much more. But then again-maybe, after all there isn't a whole lot more to this story. In any event-only positive-Jaimelyn's performance as Heidi. The rest-skip it. 2 out of 10 stars.

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