A Mixed Bag FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (Blu-ray)

2006 / 86 min

FROM WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Princess Pepper😽

Ever since This is Spinal Tap (still the greatest mockumentary ever made), Christopher Guest has put himself in the director’s chair for a handful of similar films to varying levels of success. The formula is the same…create a premise conducive to a documentary format, then gather a familiar troupe of trusted comic actors gifted at improvisation and turn them loose with their characters. 2000’s Best in Show remains the funniest, becoming something of a cult classic in its own right.

Guest gathers his usual suspects in 2006’s For Your Consideration, with diminished results. Once again “co-writing” with Eugene Levy (who both have prominent roles), this one satirizes Hollywood and the media that covers its doings. While still largely improvised, it eschews the mockumentary approach, telling an actual story, that of three actors who have roles in Home for Purim, a film generating considerable “Oscar buzz” - largely perpetuated by their agents and the media - while still in production.

Fred Willard steals another movie.

Much of For Your Consideration is about how these actors handle the sudden attention, and the scenes where they engage with various media are very clever (especially the vapid television shows on which they appear). Conversely, the behind-the-scenes sequences of the movie’s production tread pretty familiar ground. We’ve seen phony agents, clueless studio heads and frustrated screenwriters in countless other movies about Hollywood.

While none of the characters are as endearingly-eccentric as those in Best in Show or A Mighty Wind, Guest’s company of actors are generally effective in their roles, especially Catherine O’Hara as Oscar-hopeful Marilyn Hack, and the late, great Fred Willard, who’s hilarious as an idiotic TV host. Still, For Your Consideration, while watchable and often amusing, is less entertaining than his full-blown mockumentaries.

EXTRA KIBBLES

OUTTAKES - Like many other movies that are largely improvised, there are a lot of leftovers. Here’s 30 minutes worth.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director/co-writer Christopher Guest and co-writer Eugene Levy.

TRAILER