michaelashtonsblog

Living in Oblivion review

DiCillo’s second feature gets notable mileage out of the simple, in the know about theorem of an Panglossian film-maker struggling to done his movie. The director is Nick (Buscemi), an arty tyro believed by some to be ‘tight with Tarantino’ and by himself to be in love with leading lady Nicole (Keener). Nick’s main pain in the arse, however, is cardinal man Chad Palomino (LeGros), a petulant hunk whose narcissism outweighs his doubtful commitment, and whose philandering inflames rivalries between various women on set, notably Nicole and producer Wanda, whose lover Wolf was never too fond of Chad in the leading place. And then, as further irritants, there are the errant booms and malfunctioning smoke-machines, the eye-patches and goatees, the doting mothers, psycho-analysing drivers and hypersensitive extras - a total nightmare. The ingenious report, told from differing perspectives and incorporating tales within tales and teasing elisions between ‘film’ and ‘reality’, is actually informative around the nuts and bolts of shooting a movie, and not purely as a catalogue of technical disasters - during the shamefully under-rated Keener, we get a real insight into wall acting and the way fatigue, memory, worry and surroundings can fight c assume their toll. Hers, however, is merely the finest of a entirety presenter of spot-on performances. A review.