Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Doing the email and blog rounds last week were videos of Lily Tomlin and David O. Russell flying off the handle][1] on the set of [I Heart Huckabees. Most commentators agree that one or both of them acted unprofessionally, but these things aren't unheard of. Film productions are difficult things, requiring large groups of people -- including several professionally inclined to be ego- and/or megalomaniacs -- to work together to meet tight deadlines while any and everything goes wrong around them.
Living in Oblivion is that process.
Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is making a low-budget independent film, struggling all the way with the unwanted creative input of cinematographer Wolf (Dermot Mulroney), the even less wanted creative input of empty-headed A-list star Chad (James LeGros) and his delusions of talent, the low self-esteem of Nicole (Catherine Keener), best known to the public for a nude shower scene in a Richard Gere movie, incompetent boom operators and more. It's enough to make you wonder why anyone would bother, but it has the ring of truth about it, and writer-director Tom DiCillo has enough experience on indie movie sets -- he worked as cinematographer on early Jim Jarmusch projects like Stranger Than Paradise -- to be intimately aware of the details.
It's tragic and extremely cynical, but also very affectionate. Film-making, the movie seems to suggest, is like a dream, with all the goodness that that implies -- but also all of the anxiety, the bizarre occurrences, and even the occasional shiny-suited, apple-holding dwarf. You couldn't give it up even if you tried.