Review of Living in Oblivion (1995) by S B — 20 May 2007

The Sundance film festival award winning comedy film depicts the process of making an independent/student film quite cleverly. Yet another "A movie about making a movie" sub-genre, written and directed by Tom DiCillo, I believe it his best film yet.

Sliced into three parts, the movie features the difficulties of film-making through the character's dreams. Yet, what is dream and what is real, you don't realize till they wake up.

Buscemi plays Nick Reve (Reve in french means Dream), the frustrated "trying to get it right" director, and you know by Murphy's Law that when he shouts "ACTION!" something will go wrong. It is amusing yet almost annoying as we get to be frustrated with Buscemi's character, and after that, it appears that it was just a dream.

The character of the arrogant actor Chad Palamino played by James LeGros, resembles Brat Pitt in appearance. It is said that Pitt was cast for this role, and since he was busy with another project, LeGros was chosen. Some say that Palamino's character might be Tom DiCillo's way of portraying Pitt's behavior on the set of his debut film "Johnny Suede" in 1991. Dicillo denies it.

The pearls of this film:

* The scene where Palamino shouts "The only reason I took this part was because someone said you were tight with Quentin Tarantino!", which is a role model for success in the indie film industry since Tarantino is the recent indie filmmaker that became a star director.

* The transition from monochrome to color and vice-versa as a difference between reality and film reality, a lovely gimmick.

* The 30 second "Room Tone" scene, where everybody is fantasizing about their life dream.

This film is a treat for filmmakers and in general a "fun" film. People who are not filmmakers will enjoy this film as well. The film is only 91 minutes and I wanted more.