Something has gone very wrong here, because Christopher Guest mockumentaries are supposed to be funny. It’s more or less guaranteed. “Best In Show”, “Waiting For Guffman”, “A Mighty Wind”, these are funny movies. “Spinal Tap” (which Rob Reiner directed, but Guest masterminded) was genius, so Guest and his troupe poking fun at Hollywood in “For Your Consideration” should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe it was just too easy, because “FYC” doesn’t take sly digs at Hollywood, it takes violent stabs. Maybe they all just really hate their jobs (and why not? everybody else does) but this movie feels like one big long complaint about movies.
Which would be fine if there was anything original here, but Guest mistakes stereotypes for comic characters. Catherin O’Hara is a vain, foolish actress obssessed with winning Oscars. Ed Begley’s make up guy is camp. The writers are sensitive, Eugene Levy’s agent is slimy, Ricky Gervais’ producer demands silly changes and so on and so on and so on. Sigh. You think of a lazy Hollywood stereotype, this movie has got it.
The only redeeming moments come from the unstoppable force that is Fred Willard. He plays a presenter on Entertainment Now! – an OTT parody of Entertainment Tonight – sporting clothes and hairstyles more suitable for someone at least half his age. Catherine O’Hara also gets some big laughs when rumours of an Oscar nom lead to her getting botox and big boobs, which (in “FYC”s only moment of subtlety) no one in the cast is brave enough to comment on.
Crucially, “FYC” is totally lacking in sympathetic characters. Eugene Levy’s double-left-footed loser gave us someone to root for in “Best In Show”, but there’s no one here you can form an emotional attachment to. They’re all either too vain or too stupid, usually both. Half the joy of a dumb character is seeing the reaction of a second, more intelligent character. But in a movie where everyone is stupid, there’s no one around to make it funny.
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