The Big Picture (1989)

Simply Perfect

Overrated and overhyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are a lot of movies that I like about the process of making a movie; Living In Oblivion, The TV Set, or even Guest's own For Your Consideration. I hadn't heard of this movie until it was brought up in a comments thread about a TV episode with a similar plot.The movie starts well, with some humor about student films. The plot mostly is just about the artistic compromises, combined with the reputation-focused existence of the Hollywood set.This is a very mildly absurdist portrayal. My biggest problem is that they didn't take the satire too far. Every compromise that was suggested could be interpreted as being an acceptable change. But the humor is also softened without the presence of someone who points out how silly these changes are. Bacon's performance seems too accepting of compromising his ideals.It's a memorable movie, and the humor is enjoyable, but it just needed to go a little bit further.

No one can blame the people who work there for not daring to make a true Hollywood satire: it would, after all, be their own careers at the butt of every joke. Which may explain why this mild lampoon of modern movie-making - the parties, the pretensions, the deals, the hype - tactfully avoids hitting its intended targets too hard. Kevin Bacon is the aspiring director courted by Tinsel Town royalty (agents and producers) after winning an AFI student film award; he's a talented and honest guy in an industry often unable to recognize either virtue, and it isn't long before he loses himself to the shallow rewards of Hollywood status: fast cars, faster women, and so forth. Viewers may recognize in the credits the names of some of the folk responsible for the definitive rock 'n' roll spoof 'This Is Spinal Tap', but any other similarity between the two features is entirely coincidental. The new film is almost as superficial as the movies it makes fun of: it's a comedy about selling out that sells itself out for the obligatory (if nicely ironic) happy ending. Watch for many familiar faces in uncredited cameos.

Los Angeles is a city where one can find, almost at every turn, a director, a starlet, a producer, or a cinematographer if one happen to be in the right places. Nick Chapman, a young man from Ohio, is trying his hand at directing. We meet him as he is going to an award ceremony at an event where the best new short film directors are competing for a prize and a chance to make it in the business. Nick is not prepared for what happens after his film becomes the talk of the town.Nick Chapman is in a relationship with Susan, an architect just starting her career. His good friend is Emmet Sumner, a cinematographer struggling to make it in the industry. Nick is being courted to sign in with different people so he can go to his next project. He has written a screenplay for a film that he wants to direct. Never, in his wildest dreams, he never imagined the strange world he is getting into, and the weird people he will have to deal with while getting his picture produced! For starters, Nick's agent, Neil Sussman, whom we meet during a luncheon at one of those trendy restaurants, is a creature from another planet.The next person Nick gets involved with is Allen Habel, a producer that sees potential in Chapman. As Nick pitches the film, Allen is already changing the way he feels will attract viewers, which has nothing to do with the original concept. Allen wants to set the picture on a beach, not in a cabin in the woods, while it is snowing, as Nick has conceived it. To make matters worse, Allen invites the young man to a party at his house that turns out to be a disaster as Nick gets to meet the film capital's fauna and flora, and ends up losing Susan.Nick gets dazzled at first, but when Allen Habel's business goes bad, he is left on his own. Added to all that, he doesn't have any money, so he has to look for any kind of job in order to survive. All his big shot friends drop him like a hot potato. No one will take his calls. Nick having broke with Susan and having betrayed Emmet, finds himself alone in the middle of all that phony world, until he meets a rock band and he makes a video of a song that becomes a hit. It is at this point Nick gets his creative powers back and as we leave him, he is directing his picture the way he wanted.Christopher Guest, a witty genius in his own right, directed this movie, his first full length film. "The Big Picture" shows a great talented director that knows well that strange world of glitter and heartaches that is Hollywood. Christopher Guest has been involved in the movie industry for most of his life and it shows.Kevin Bacon is an asset in any picture where he appears. His take on Nick Chapman is dead on. Mr. Bacon is an excellent actor, as he shows here. It is unfortunate Martin Short, who steals every scene he is in didn't get credit for being in the film. His agent must be a composite on the many characters the director, and him, must have met, at one time, or another.Christopher Guest has a group of actors that are featured in his films. Michael McKean and Mr. Guest have a long history of collaboration. The late J.T. Walsh gives one of his best performances as Allen Habel. The rest of the ensemble cast is also notable, Teri Hatcher, Fran Dresher, and a goofy Jennifer Jason Leigh, among others.Never having seen this film, we were lucky to catch it recently and it was worth the wait.

If you have ever worked in Hollywood (alright Burbank)then this movie captures the insanity that sometimes leads to great movies or watered down movies or even movies that never should have been made - which, unfortunately, are most of the movies made.It is all there, the Agent who promises everything and delivers nothing, the Producer who just can't leave a movie alone, the forgetting of friendships in order to rise higher on the ladder of stars and the endless number of meetings and promises (broken and kept)that lead to only further frustrations.The Cast is right on the target, the writing is superb and the actors deliver.Before you go to Film School, before you move to Hollywood, before you sign that first deal - see this movie so that the tears that you will shed over Hollywood will at least be lighter.Emily Longstreth is simply lovely as Susan, Nick's girlfriend