Cult filmmakers Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn have made a career out of genre homages without ever losing touch with their own distinct aesthetic. Their 2015 feature “L for Leisure” directly riffed on the ’90s indie film culture and 2018’s “Two Plains and a Fancy” offered a deconstructed take on the Western genre — but no matter what genre they take on, trademarks like 16mm film and dreamy synth scores mark every project as distinctly theirs. Their latest feature, “ Dream Team ,” is no exception.
A send-up of basic cable softcore thrillers like “Silk Stalkings,” the film presents six episodes of a fictional TV show that moves with the urgency of an imaginary writers room that knew it had 27 episodes to fill. Storylines seem to come and go at their own leisure as the “show” alternates between solving crimes, alluding to sexiness that we never quite see, and fixating on ambient aquatic imagery. Neither a true satire nor a sincere love letter, “Dream Team” nevertheless succeeds at recreating the kind of mediocrity that inspired it.
Unfortunately, the bulk of its appeal lies in its retro vibes that are far better suited to late night channel surfing than focused theatrical viewing. “Dream Team” follows the adventures of No St. Aubergine (Esther Garrel) and Chase National (Alex Zhang Hungtai), two Interpol agents clearly designed to have sexual tension that carries over from week to week.
Their work forces them to get up close and personal with some.