Scarecrow-88 Christopher Guest just does it time and time again. His comedy this go-around abandons the documentary-stylized "interview the actors" format that had defined the approach so often associated to Guest. The sound of Oscar starts to take over the production of a low-rent Jewish period melodrama, with a title that is hard to pronounce, consisting of a cast of wannabe Hollywood A-listers (Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Moynihan, Parker Posey, and Rachael Harris) who get it in their heads that some of them might be nominated…but just how realistic are these expectations?The gigantic cast is chock full of talented comedians. The list is endless: Ed Begley Jr. as a fey, hippy makeup artist, Eugene Levy as a shady agent for Shearer, Guest himself as the pot-bellied director of the production who actually encourages his cast to up their already uncanny camp performing, John Michael Higgins as this hanger-on during the production who seems to be responsible for the Oscar buzz' continued momentum, Jennifer Coolidge as this bimbo serving as financial backing for the film (when she speaks, those around her are awestruck by her low IQ), Don Lake and Michael Hitchcock as a movie critic duo who rarely agree on anything, John Krasinski and Paul Dooley as officers for a bad cop show, Simon Helberg as Levy's "junior agent", Sandra Oh and Richard Kind as marketers for the movie with some rather unsettling theater posters, Bob Balaban and Michael McKean as the writers for the movie so completely out of touch with just how cheesy their material truly is, and Fred Willard and Jane Lynch as hosts of one of those Entertainment Tonight Hollywood celebrity buzz shows.A Christopher Guest film has become must-see just because of the wealth of comedic talent that fills the running time. As you might expect, Guest aims and hits the bullseye more times than not: the acting profession, filmmaking backstage drama, production peek behind the curtain, media coverage, Hollywood agent circus, and egocentric actors often unaware of their true status in town all are perfect targets for Guest's satiric genius. O'Hara and Posey are both brilliant in their respective parts as competitive actresses hoping to score the nomination, portraying in their current production as the dying mother and lesbian daughter she so desperately wanted to "meet a fine boy and get married", but I thought Shearer (whose voice is so distinctive to The Simpsons) steals the film as a down-on-his-luck veteran actor who has been in the biz a long time and just hasn't hit paydirt. It doesn't help that his agent, Levy, undermines him by finding him bad gigs that only discourage Shearer from ever escaping the doldrums of bad television commercials. Levy has a field day with his part as this unflappable agent always trying to be an escape artist when Shearer wonders where the roles are. I could go on and on in regards to members of the cast. If you love seeing the behind the scenes of Hollywood lampooned, For Your Consideration is essential viewing. O'Hara's getting plastic surgery and Posey going the "one person show" act in the dark with just a spotlight are highlights. Balaban and McKean often finding their script disregarded, having to defend it, is another highlight among many. Higgins' disarming appearance out of the blue on unexpected members of the production is a hoot!

FloodClearwater Catherine O'Hara and Harry Shearer plumb surprising emotional depths in their tender portrayals of past-their-sell-by-date stars in Christopher Guest's comedic ensemble parody For Your Consideration. Co-written by Eugene Levy, FYC is supposed to be a film that skewers Hollywood's award-ceremony-industrial complex, and it does, but it is also Guest's most character-focused film.O'Hara and Shearer portray veteran actors of less than distinguished service who find 'one last great chance' to earn the admiration of their peers once they are cast as leads in an ill-starred, oft- rewritten 'small' film directed by the estimable Jay Berman (Guest), "Home for Purim."The rest of the ever-expanding players in Guest's company of parodic itinerants, from Ed Begley, Jr. to Bob Balaban, to Jane Lynch and Michael McKean, surround and fill in the rest of "Purim's" cast, crew, publicists, grips, accountants, celebrity interviewers, security guards, and gawkers. This is a film about a film after all, and Guest and Levy omit no mockable trade in their fictional movie production and marketing process.But O'Hara and Shearer get most of the quality screen time, and they do not waste a moment of it. The sweetness at the bottom of the film's pie is their characters' comedically haunted, grasping, chin up with watering eyes anticipation that, by the end of this particular grind, they'll have arrived as the real stars they've always known themselves to be. The success of their focused performance, and of Guest and Levy's decision to let them carry so much of the film's load, arrives when it occurs to the viewer, through the laughs about Hollywood and its prissy foible-y emotional excess, that what haunts these two actors is the same fear and yearning that, at some point in life, runs through us all.

Cosmoeticadotcom In trying to get at the heart of why this film is merely good, not hilarious, I think that an over-reliance on improvisation is at fault. In a mockumentary, such rough moments can be 'disguised' as byproducts of the faux reality, whereas in a straight film like this they cannot. A good example is provided by John Michael Higgins as Corey Taft, the stolid agent for Marilyn Hack. While he's got a few good scenes, too many of his obnoxious to the core character simply is stuff seen done better before. And he suffers in contrast to Levy's character, Morley Orfkin, agent to Victor Allen Miller. The same goes for Ed Begley Jr.'s tired and routine gay makeup man character, Sandy Lane. Also, some of the same old tired in-jokes and stereotypes about Hollywood abound. If only two or three were used, rather than fifteen or twenty, the film would have been better off, and the balance would have aided the true pathos of the film. In that sense, this film was a bit lesser version of David Mamet's State And Main crossed with Robert Altman's The Player.Yet, despite all that, this film is, in truth, a good adult comedy, and given that they are so rare, its flaws are minor in comparison to its good points. Compare it to the latest black or teen exploitation comedy and you'll agree. For Your Consideration may not, itself, be worthy of consideration for an Academy Award, but it may stand out as a critical film in the continued evolution of one of American film's most original and funny filmic auteurs. La chaim!

nathanschubach The movie was funny at times, but it wasn't written very well. It seemed to rely on the old improvisational skills of the actors to pull it together. There's a lot of timely press jokes that the actors go through (Harry Shearer on a TRL-esquire after-school hip program trying to be cool, and the hilarious scene of Catherine O'Hara revealing a new face-lift on national TV on a late night talk show), which are pretty much the funniest parts of the movie. Jane Lynch and Fred Willard as entertainment news-show hosts was a delight, especially when Fred went on the street to get reactions of failed actors after not getting nominated for an Oscar. And I loved John Michael Higgins' executive character talking about his Choctaw heritage.There wasn't much more to this movie, though. OK, the setting of the movie is non-traditionally based on a Jewish holiday, which gets changed to a more Americanized title. Then the cliché characters of the dying mother and lesbian sister, OK. It just wasn't very remarkable in the end. Again, no real music in the movie, which I have a problem with just to ease out of constant interviews with the actors in Guest's movies. But whatever, it's better than average, and another welcomed try by Christopher Guest at the perfect improv movie, but it's starting to get a little played-out.