Telling Lies in America is a 1997 drama movie about a Hungarian teenager who has fled his country with his father for the United States in the early 1960's. The boy called Karchy (played by Brad Renfro; The Client) is not performing well at school, while his father urges him to adapt so they can become American citizens.
Radio deejay Billy Magic (the starring role played by Kevin Bacon) steps up to become Karchy's mentor. Bacon is excellent in playing the slick, glamorous playboy with money, girls and a blinking Cadillac, the dream of every schoolboy in the rock 'n roll era. Karchy doesn't feel too proud about himself, so he tells impressive lies to everyone so they think he's a decent guy. When slimeball Billy Magic enters the stage, Karchy realises his opportunity to become Cool by sticking to the popular deejay. He also shows off enormously to his teasingly older date (Diney, played by Calista Flockhart, possibly better known as Ally McBeal):
(Diney) Why you got to show off so much?
(Karchy) Cause I ain't got that much to show.
...spoiler alert...
After two thirds of the nostalgic movie directed by Guy Ferland, the moral message starts to roll in. Karchy doesn't want to continue telling lies to everyone and hurting them along the way. It's a pitiful ending to a decent story by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls). Dealing in part with his own story of growing up in 1960's Cleveland, Eszterhas wrote an affecting portrait of a Hungarian immigrant teenager's fling with sleaze and its troubling rewards. The moral reckoning between Karchy and Billy in the end is really disappointing.