Christopher Guest’s hilarious satire lampoons the Hollywood film industry’s obsession with the Academy Awards, focusing on a rag-tag bunch of has-beens, never-weres and newcomers working on a clichéd Jewish period family drama Home for Purim.
Sending up the hopes, fears and egos of his stars and producers, Guest plays for broad laughs. As usual, the irony rests on the reality of the situation versus the aspirations of the main players, with Catherine O’Hara and Harry Shearer – character actors long past their prime – continuing to dream of Academy Awards, despite their most recent work being in cheap commercials.
The producer is a bosomy plastic surgery disaster blonde who has invested in the film with only the merest inkling of where her cash is going.
Guest’s familiar entourage of actors have great fun as the Oscars media circus gets closer, whipping up the actors’ hysteria, insecurities, greed and self-delusion. Ricky Gervais makes a guest appearance as the head of the studio speciality division. Fans of Guest’s previous work (This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind) will relish his pointed barbs at the superficiality and silliness of this world and those who are new to it will be in for a treat.