Living in Oblivion (1995)

You won't find a smarter, more amusing, or more accurate send-up of low-budget filmmaking than Tom DiCillo's 1995 independent feature, Living in Oblivion, wherein a motley cast of would-be artistes blunders its way through a day on the set. Steve Buscemi plays goateed Nick Reve, a harried, sweating director whose crew of numbskulls and egotists seems hell-bent on ruining his film. The trials and tribulations of independent filmmaking are not foreign material for writer-director DiCillo, who cut his teeth as Jim Jarmusch's cinematographer on 1985's Stranger Than Paradise before going on to direct his own work, such as the offbeat 1992 comedy Johnny Suede. Like that film, Living in Oblivion rides a precariously thin line between the real and the surreal, featuring a midget actor and an exploding smoke-effects machine, as well as a ridiculously narcissistic Brad Pittesque character played by James Le Gros. While films like Get Shorty, François Truffaut's Day for Night, and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt suggest that moviemaking is hip and glamorous, Living in Oblivion will have none of that. The film within the film feels like a director's primer on what not to do, and this modest-budget gem both lovingly and caustically strips the "cool" veneer from the filmmaking process. They should show this one to kids thinking of entering film school. It might make them think better of it. --Nick Poppy Amazon.com

Not what I hoped for. Much worse.

I love the odd art film and had many people recommend this film. It just didn't work for me. I love most of the actors in it and tried really hard to see the funny but I just found it dull and below amateurish in execution. Thank God for Peter Dinklage; he gave me the few laughs I got from the entire production.

Sometimes low budget is just low quality as well. Fortunately, most of the good actors here have moved on to far better fare. January 3, 2008

"Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?"

"Living in Oblivion" (1995) - is a 91 minutes long low-budget independent movie about trials and tribulations during making a low budget independent movie called.. "Living in Oblivion". Writer-director Tom DiCillo made in 1991 a film called "Johnny Suede" starring a young and unknown at the time actor named Brad Pitt. "Johnny Suede" was a failure with both critics and viewers but an artist can learn from any experience however disappointing or devastating it is. DiCillo wrote a short story from his frustration and turned his experience into a smart, funny, playful, and highly enjoyable second feature "Living in Oblivion" that takes place during one day of shooting a low budget film. Photographed with the color-to-black-and-white transitions, "Living in Oblivions" has surreal, strangely poetic and amusing quality to it.

The cast is solid and consists of DiCillo's friends who are the regulars in his films. Steve Buscemi, the king of independent movies, in the rare starring role, plays Nick Reve, a long-haired, dedicated but frustrated director who in the moments of creative inspiration has to get back to earth and to deal with the tensions between his leading lady (Catherine Keener, before her star-making turn in "Being John Malkovich" but already a wonderfully talented beautiful and sexy actress) with whom he is silently in love and the male star, arrogant egotist Chad Palomino (James LeGros does an un-flattering but hilarious and quite accurate impersonation of the real life model for Chad). If these problems are not enough, there is eye-patch wearing sensitive leather-clad cameraman named Wolf (Dermot Mulroney) who went through a painful break-up right on the set. There is a great scene with an irritated dwarf Tito (Peter Dinklage) who was hired for a dream sequence and who hates dreams with the dwarfs in them: "Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who's had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don't even have dreams with dwarfs in them. The only place I've seen dwarfs in dreams is in stupid movies like this!" There is also a smoke machine that explodes every time when turned on...And to top it all, Nick's senile mother surprisingly shows up during the shot and eventually saves the dream sequence and the movie. That's what the mothers are for, aren't they?

October 9, 2007

Living in Oblivion

This hilarious send-up is a both a loving tribute to the art of filmmaking and a farcical rendering of DiCillo's real-life experiences on the set of his previous indie breakout, "Johnny Suede." Never before has the absurdity and madness of trying to orchestrate the making of a movie been so nuttily and honestly captured. Keener, Mulroney, and Le Gros (whose character is modeled after Brad Pitt, star of DiCillo's debut) are fabulous, and Buscemi--scrawny, seemingly malnourished, and deeply agitated--has rarely been so funny or sympathetic. In reality a disaster movie, "Oblivion" is ingenious, briskly paced, and full of odd surprises. July 13, 2007

His moon is in Uranus

I normally do not enjoy movies about the making of movies, so I was very pleasantly surprised to be thoroughly entertained by 'Living in Oblivion'. The reason I took the chance at all was due to the presence of Catherine Keener, one of our most overlooked and under-appreciated Hollywood actresses. She once again did not disappoint, but the entire cast was extremely good. You get a real education on the frustrations and challenges involved with making a low budget film. Buscemi is also right on target as the stessed out director. The Amazon reviews are for the most part positive about this film and for good reason. I'm glad to join my fellow Amazonians in heaping praise on this low budget gem. July 27, 2006

The Experience of making a low-budget movie can't be fun?

Living in Oblivion was highly recommended to me by my fellow film crew members, because they all say that we are practically experiencing this film on our shoot. The only difference is this film actually have stars and a budget, dispite the story is about low-budget filmmaking. I found this film hugely entertaining and realistically depicted and I can totally relate to what goes on throughout Oblivion. Yes, a lot of chaos and mishaps take place and in this movie.

Catherine Keener is great as a somewhat well-known actress who has worked on a Richard Gere movie, and now she's the star of a super low budget movie. She has very low confidence in herself as a actress, but the director(Buscemi) still believes in her. He miscast a well-known arrogant male lead who ended up having a one-nite-stand with Keener. The two lead have no chemistry working together on set, and they just can't stand each other anymore. The crew is also kind of nut case. From the cameraman(Dermot Mulroney) who has a disfunctional relationship with the 1st A.D., to the Boom operator who constantly crosses into frame during a take, to the actors not remembering the lines and so on.... It's just so funny. You just wonder how people can work on shows like this.

I really enjoyed watching Steve Buscemi, Keener,Mulrony, and the Sharon Stone look-alike actress who played the 1st A.D. June 6, 2006

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