Truly Dreadful Film

That was an excellent one.

Lack of good storyline.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is an underrated Kevin Bacon movie about the film industry that should be seen by way more people than it has. Kevin Bacon plays a talented film student who is soon grabbed by a studio as he makes it big. However, his success makes him arrogant and leave the people who once cared for him and vice versa. Classic tale of redemption ensues but the film has many highlighted scenes including a fun music video starring the underrated Jennifer Jason Leigh who made being a hipster popular way before the term was even invented.

Film student Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) is nominated for an award at the National Film Institute. He's competing against the wacky Lydia Johnson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and spoiled arrogant Jonathan Tristan-Bennet (Dan Schneider). After his win, he has big dreams but Hollywood is more than his naive expectations. There's studio head Allen Habel (J.T. Walsh), his wife Polo Habel (Fran Drescher), and his mistress Gretchen (Teri Hatcher). Allen starts changing Nick's movie. He's infatuated with Gretchen. He dumps his girlfriend Susan Rawlings and old friends like Emmet Sumner (Michael McKean).Martin Short's bad hair really threw me off for a second. It suggests a broader, sillier comedy than I expected. Luckily, it doesn't go that way but this is not at the later Christopher Guest level. It takes all the standard Hollywood behind the scenes and puts it on the screen. It's quirky but no big laughs. It hits the nails on the head. Nick is not much in terms of rooting interest. This is early in the inside Hollywood satires. It could be darker. The girlfriend role needs a better actress. The most compelling character is actually Lydia who reconnects with the movie for a short while in the last third. The movie gets a lot better with her energy. It would help if his movie idea doesn't look so utterly self-congratulatory art-house. Overall, this is a nice lesser known Christopher Guest film.

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.

I tried to do a short review, but the site wouldn't let me! The short films throughout this movie are classic and hilarious. I quote them frequently with friends because they are that unforgettable. "Move again!"You can't take this movie too seriously, since it was only designed to entertain, not win Oscars. The acting debut for Teri Hatcher, along with a great cameo for Martin Short are a couple of the interesting tidbits this movie also affords.I also really liked like music throughout the movie.Go watch it.