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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Christopher Guest Filmography
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A PG-13 86 min
From the comedy team of Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy comes this biting satire of the making of an independent film, Home for Purim, which develops an Oscar buzz for its stars, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O’Hara) and Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer). This is the same ex-Second City repertory company that produced the critically acclaimed Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and The Mighty Wind.
The veteran troupe has turned their saber-like parody on the pretentious art film in-crowd, that takes making a movie far too seriously. Christopher Guest plays Home for Purim’s supercilious director (and he directs this movie simultaneously) Jay Berman, with his funny teased up hair and goofy looking designer glasses.
The scenario, written by Eugene Levy, is brimming with subtle lampoons of indie filmmakers, from the cheap buffet of candy to the flamboyant producer, who tells interviewers not to photograph her from the rear. When director Berman suggests that the actors improvise a scene and throws the script on the floor, the two writers, played with dripping cynicism by Michael McLean and Bob Balaban freak out and run to the producer who butts in and queries Berman as to his intentions.
When Marilyn Hack hears a rumor that she is being considered for an Oscar for her role in the picture, she pretends not to be interested, but underneath, she is ecstatic. Of course, the movie is still in production and a long way from its release date, so noticing an actress and suggesting an Oscar buzz so early is ridiculous. But everyone panders to her vanity puffing up her fragile ego.
All the actors on the Purim set are neurotic or certifiably crazy. They second guess their character’s motivation to an absurd level. Morley Ortkin (Levy) is Victor Allen Miller’s agent. He is always putting a positive spin on any crummy prospective job that Victor is offered. When he hears that Victor might be in the running for an Oscar, he immediately starts making calls to Jay Leno and David Letterman as well an entertainment show like Access Hollywood hosted by Jane Lynch spoofing the perky blond and Fred Willard with his Mohawk as the wisecracking self-absorbed jerk.
Co-starring in the very Jewish Home for Purim are Parker Posey, Christopher Moynihan, and Rachael Harris who are noticeably upset over the rumors of an Oscar buzz for Marilyn and Victor. Purim (a Jewish holiday like Thanksgiving) is set in 1944, and Parker Posey’s character has come home with her lesbian lover, which, for the time, was quite scandalous. It’s a typical maudlin melodrama that exposes the Puritan mores of the mid 1940s.
Enter Marin Gibb (Ricky Gervais) who is the executive producer (the money guy). He wants to tone down the Jewishness of the movie, and change the title to Home for Thanksgiving. At first he frames his order in delicate terms so as not to alienate Berman. Ah yes, but when Berman stands firm, and refuses to budge on changing the name, Gibb and his nutty assistant played by Larry Miller, have to get more direct by saying it will be done or there will be no picture.
The wonderful subtleness of the satire aimed at the industry itself may go over the head of many moviegoers who are not privy to what goes on behind-the-scenes of a movie set. Still, anyone will recognize that it’s funny as it lambastes Hollywood stereotypes, which many insiders will recognize as real people in the biz. Levy’s characters are typically insecure Hollywood types–self-absorbed, neurotic, and paranoid that their colleagues are cutting their throats. They live in dread fear of getting old, and they try to stay young looking by dressing in the latest Beverly Hill fashions, dying their hair, and getting Botox injections.
Catherine O’Hara masterfully portrayed a nut-job and Marilyn Hack becomes a parody of herself when she tries to live up to being an Oscar nominee, changing her look to slutty blonde bombshell. Viewers can’t help but feel sorry for her, since at her age, the industry has already thrown her away, relegating her to character roles and sympathetic mothers.
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