Heather Graham

(On Cable TV, June 2019) It must be fun to live in Los Angeles and somehow convince people to give you money to make a movie. You can hire your friends, have best-of-industry technical production equipment and crew, shoot in one of the most picturesque cities in the world and do all of that while still going to sleep at your place at the end of the day. No wonder so many actors try their hands at it eventually. With Half Magic, we have Heather Graham writing, directing, and starring in a vehicle for female empowerment in the trenches of Tinseltown. Ribald, raunchy (but never naked), the R-rated movie has a little bit more on its mind than the kind of overblow sorority girl antics of the better-known women-centred examples of the genre—it spends on-the-nose energy talking about women’s place in Hollywood, empowerment, bad boyfriends, and modern dating. It seems as if Graham had been away for a while, but this is a good return for her, a complex and likable role—plus, while the film won’t necessarily win directing awards, she’s effective behind the camera. Comic digressions include a commentary on changing slasher movies. Los Angeles looks great as a backdrop to a romantic comedy, and so does Stephanie Beatriz in dominatrix gear. The female empowerment message is conventional at this point, but it’s still relevant … even if, at other times, it does feel like hammering a well-known point. Half Magic doesn’t quite go all the way to address its potential: In many ways, it does feel like the kind of film, locally shot, that actors do to create a portfolio for themselves, and it’s not a bad example of the form. Still, it’s fun, breezy, takes a different perspective and gives decent roles to a few underused actresses.