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For Your Consideration (2006)

Director: Christopher Guest

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Synopsis

Comedy satire of the madness that grips Hollywood during the awards season.

Movie review

From Time Out London

The key may change – amateur dramatics, dog shows, folk music – but the tune of Christopher Guest’s semi-improvised ensemble comedies remains pretty consistent: the variously inane, neurotic and narcissistic members of a self-deluding subculture go to inordinate lengths to set themselves up for a collective public fall. It’s a good tune, and the players – Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Jennifer Coolidge, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard et al – are by now effortlessly adept at their craft. The subject here is also prime material: the cast of a pompous, hamfisted entry in the previous unrecognised genre of Jewish Deep South melodrama (‘Is that mah sweet Rachel’s voice I heard, or am I just goin’ meshuggah?’) convince themselves that an Oscar buzz is developing around their shocking performances. In fact, the target might be a little too neat: with its self-absorbed actors, vapid execs and frustrated scriptwriters, ‘For Your Consideration’ has a tinge of stock familiarity absent from Guest’s other films. The pacing is also somewhat uncertain, particularly towards the end. Even so, the regular flow of off-beat one-liners, bits of physical business and priceless character notes are unlikely to leave admirers of ‘Waiting for Guffman’, ‘Best in Show’ and ‘A Mighty Wind’ seeking a refund. Part of the appeal is the sheer sincerity with which each dolt is imagined: as the female leads, O’Hara and Posey provoke something like sympathy for the neediness beneath their ceaseless preening, while Higgins’ publicist has a superb line in unfathomable aphorism. ‘In every actor, there lives a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale…’

Author: Ben Walters

Time Out London Issue 1903: February 7-13 2007

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