Truly Dreadful Film

Sorry, this movie sucks

Beautiful, moving film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

... and it has remained one of my favorite films of all time. It is an story of naivety exploited, and ambition exploded. A cautionary tale about holding to your ideals.As Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 91% overall and 100% from the Top Critics, I feel vindicated. At the time, it was noted in the press that the irony of a movie condemning the machinations of the movie biz, was not able to get a real theatrical release.Enjoy the Big Picture. Martin Short is phenomenal as the agent from hell.

There are a lot of clichés you can use to describe Hollywood and the Entertainment industry, such as "Show Biz flies on the seat of its pants" or "The industry doesn't make movies to uplift people; it makes movies to make money." The one you always hear about and is probably the most true is simply "When you're hot, you're hot, and when you're not, you're not." "The Big Picture" co-written and directed by Christopher Guest is a film about being "hot" and "not" in the entertainment industry. The story centers around Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon), recent AFI winner of the best student film, and the film begins with the awards ceremony. AFI (American Film Institute) is a film school in Los Angeles which boasts that its graduates become successful in the entertainment industry, although when you look at lists of the top talent in the industry, almost none are alumni. (The likes of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, and countless others never attended film school. Even Guest didn't attend film school but did graduate from a masters acting program in New York.)At the reception after the awards ceremony, Nick is approached by cut-throat studio executive Allen Habel (J.T. Walsh) who says he believes in Nick's talent. He then lands an agent, Neil Sussman (Martin Short), the ultra-sleazy and smarmy entertainment agent. Nick then has an appointment with Habel where he pitches a new movie idea. Several of the scenes with Habel involve some kind of flames, and I couldn't help but think his character loosely mirrors the Devil. Habel then begins suggesting "dramatic" changes to fundamental aspects of his original script. What had been a manage a tois between two guys and a girl up in a northern snowy area, becomes two girls and a guy at a summer beach house, and it's the two girls who "cheat" on the guy! And originally the film was supposed to be about 40-something's, and that changes to 20-something's. But Nick appears to have received the "green light", industry parlance for receiving funding and backing for a film.Emmet Sumner (Michael McKean) and his Asian-American wife are two of his best friends. Sumner is also a struggling cinematographer. He also has a loyal girlfriend, Susan Rawlings (Emily Longstreth), who is very attractive but not a supermodel type. (Sometimes she appeared intentionally dowdy to contrast with the movie star types.) He then meets Gretchen (Teri Hatcher) at one of Habel's parties, and when Nick lets on he might be directing a new film, Gretchen comes onto him like a mosquito attracted to flesh, and no less than in front of his girlfriend! Fran Drescher of "The Nanny" fame has a small role as Habel's wife.Nick then begins to disassociate with the people in his inner circle and starts to live the "life" of a Hollywood "player". He trades in his dumpy 1959 convertible for a cool new car replete with car cell phone, which was massively expensive to own in the 1980's. He starts hanging out with Gretchen and he dumps his girlfriend, renting new expensive accommodations in Beverly Hills. He also starts to blow off his friends, including Sumner. Just weeks before shooting, he reads that the studio has dumped Habel and all his projects are "dead". And then the people in the industry who had been so excited about the prospects of his new talent, avoid him like damaged goods. Even Gretchen subtly dismisses him, because he's no longer a "player" in the industry, and his agent doesn't give him much time. Now, Nick has next-to-nothing and has to fight for odd jobs around the LA Area.Generally speaking, an entertaining one-watch which is a satirical but not entirely untrue critique of the Hollywood scene. A few of the interesting aspects of this film are the inter-splicing of fantasy scenes, a bit like Woody Allen's "Play it Again, Sam". Often the scenes ring of old movies from the 40's, including a war film, a film noir, a Frank Capra picture, and even a 1960's beach movie, among others. There are also the obligatory cameos with Eliot Gould, Roddy McDowell, and John Cleese. Also, there are many "in-jokes" about the entertainment industry itself. It is no secret that many women will try to seduce men whom they believe will become "players" in the industry. One tip-off I learned after having lived in Los Angeles for a time was that if a woman you're dating only talks about the entertainment industry and nothing else, she may be looking for a career stepping-stone, and not a relationship. At one point, smarmy agent Martin Short talks about reading some scripts "almost all the way through" which is industry short-hand that he probably read the first line or two of the synopsis and the first page. If there's anything which can be said of the industry, it's people never say what they mean. And why should they? It's a world full of "actors" in every sense.

I was in the midst of my own film career when this movie hit the theatres, and I went and saw it with a friend who in actuality turned out to be an actor (he had been assigned to me).Nick goes through a typical Hollywood story of succumbing to temptation, and leaving behind all he values for what he believes is success, but finds that he never lost what he thought he had, and winds up a better person and film maker for it.The movie is a kind of skewering of the Hollywood system, but it's all done in jest. The truth is the indy film maker is noted for his skill level and artistic intelligence based upon his work, and then offered assignments based on that grading. Believe it or not most directors do commercials and industrial training videos, not feature films.It is a delightful film, and I had a gander at it on bluray since I first saw it at the Kabuki in San Francisco all those years ago, and it holds up well. For the first time in ages I found myself cheering and booing at Nick Chapman (Pee-Wee / Hustler dolly), and for some reason found myself very satisfied with the ending of a movie.The film is essentially one man's story as an aspiring director, and has lots of funny moments, but doesn't show you some of the regular everyday hard work that goes on and off the set, because making movies is a job like anything else.I don't have too much else to say about it, other than for the first time in years I actually enjoyed a movie without feeling the need to tear it apart on all levels.A good watch. Give it a whirl on the player.

College movie whiz Bacon gets out of school and thinks he's going to make it big in Hollywood. Along the way he dumps his friends and girlfriend chasing after Teri Hatcher and fame. Then things unravel and he finds himself with nothing. Bacon is just grand taking the roller coaster ride, as is Emily Longstreth as the modest but loyal girlfriend. I think she's the most fascinating character in this movie, I can't understand why she was out of movies five years after this, she is just magnificent here. There are a bunch of other great characters in this, including JT Walsh as the grandiose producer, Michael McKean as Bacon's cinematographer, Martin Short as the over-reactive agent, and an always extremely welcome Jennifer Jason Leigh. One of my all-time favorite sleeper movies.