Summary:
An indie film production explodes with mania after it’s rumored one of the actors might be nominated for an Oscar.
My Thoughts:
“For Your Consideration” is a satire from Christopher Guest, a man whom might be best remembered for his writing and his role as Nigel Tufnel from “This is Spinal Tap”, but also his mockumentary films “Waiting for Guffman”, “Best in Show”, and “A Mighty Wind”. While “For Your Consideration” is not a true mockumentary, it does feel remarkably similar in style to those other films Guest made earlier in his career; it’s filled with quirky and neurotic characters, stuffed to the gills with clever jokes that lovingly send up it’s subject, and though I’ve seen this film only once (so far), I’m willing to bet it gets better with repeat viewings, just like Guest’s other films. That being said, I’d also venture to guess that this film wont appeal to as wide a range of audience as some of Guest’s other flicks because I feel like a lot of jokes require a bit of insider knowledge into the film industry or at least a basic understanding of how the industry works, and without that prior knowledge, many of the jokes would fall flat. Let me put it this way: I would have no problem recommending “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind” to my parents, but I feel like if I were to recommend this movie, they wouldn’t find it nearly as funny as I do.
“In every actor there lives a tiger, a pig, an ass, and a nightingale.”
“For Your Consideration” follows the production of “Home for Purim”, a low budget drama about a Jewish family living in the US during the 1940s. Character actress Marilyn Hack (Catherine O’Hara, “Beetlejuice”) plays the family’s dying mother, and veteran actor Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer, “Godzilla”) plays the father. Callie Webb (Parker Posey, “Dazed and Confused”) plays a lesbian daughter returning home with her lover (Rachel Harris, “The Hangover”) for the first, and Brian Chubb (Christopher Moynihan, “A Mighty Wind”) plays the younger son. After the actors get wind that someone on the production might be nominated for an Oscar, the production is thrown into a wild frenzy. The film’s director (Christopher Guest, “The Princess Bride”) tries to make the film far more artistic, while the film’s producer (Jennifer Coolidge, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”) knows next to nothing about producing films, and the film’s writers (Bob Balaban, “Moonrise Kingdom“ and Michael McKean, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”) bicker over which way they should turn the themes of the script.
As I mentioned above, I feel like I will enjoy this movie more than the average (read ‘Marvel’) moviegoer because I’ve worked on independent movies like the one was focused on. I’ve dealt with actors who were rather self-important, worked with directors who thought that simply tilting a camera automatically made a shot more meaningful, and seen scripts being argued over by concerned parties as if they were governments forging treaties that could affect the lives of millions, and not a schlocky straight-to-DVD slasher flick that I would find in a dollar bin at my local video store a few years later (to my great humor). Movie sets are weird bubble-like worlds that are populated by some of the most loving, creative, and bat-sh*t insane people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with; this movie captures that feeling perfectly. I really found this film to be pretty hysterical, almost throughout the entirety of its runtime. There are only a few jokes that run out their welcome towards the end of the film, but for the most part this movie moves along quite nicely.
The thing that this film does best is just captures the mania and the bi-polar personalities of everyone that might be involved on a film set. Catherine O’Hara is absolutely hysterical as Marilyn Hack (aptly named). At the beginning of the film, her character seems drained by the industry, as if she’s just struggling to keep up her motivation to keep going. But when the rumor of an Oscar starts to permeate the film’s production, she suddenly seems far more interested in the film, though, she claims, that it has nothing to do with the Oscar buzz. There are plenty of noteworthy cameos speckled throughout the movie that really help to add a pinch of humor here and there; Ricky Gervais’ character in particular was pretty great.
Verdict:
As a whole I really enjoyed “For Your Consideration”, though I still think some of Guest’s other films are a bit tighter and funnier overall. Still, if you like the typical fare Guest has to offer, you’ll probably find enough here to tickle your fancy.
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