The conglomeration of media fascination with celebrities, gossip mongering, and a focus on superficial matters of no consequence in the publicity surrounding movies has reached staggering levels in recent years. It was only a matter of time until master satirist Christopher Guest took on the Hollywood hype machine after having poked fun at musical theatre (Waiting for Guffman), dog shows (Best in Show), and folk music (A Mighty Wind). The screenplay by Guest and Eugene Levy leaves no stone unturned in this funny mockumentary, and the ensemble performances of the lively and talented cast are just right.
Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) made a movie that established her as a real comer in the business. But many years later, all that is left for her is playing the dying Southern matriarch in an indie melodrama called Home for Purim, a movie about a Jewish family and its multiple crises. Her big fan on the set is Sandy Lane (Ed Begley Jr.), the make-up artist. When Hack learns there's been a post on the Internet suggesting that her performance is worthy of Academy Award consideration, she is overjoyed. Equally thankful for this rumor is Corey Taft (John Michael Higgins), the unit publicist; he has not been able to scare up any interest about the movie anywhere.
Hack's co-star is Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer), a journeyman actor who has taken the role in Home for Purim in an effort to take the focus off his work as Irv the Footlong Weiner in Felber's Kosher Hot Dogs ads. When the two anchorpersons on a local Los Angeles TV talk show go gaga over him and suggest that his performance may be worthy of an Academy Award nomination as well, Hack is not overjoyed. Miller's motor-mouth agent Morley Orfkin (Eugene Levy) cannot believe that his client has been received so well.
The producer of Home for Purim is Whitney Taylor Brown (Jennifer Coolidge), a dim-witted woman who snaps to attention when Calley Webb (Parker Posey), who plays Hack's lesbian daughter in the movie, is touted as another possible Academy Award nominee. This actress is a former stand-up comic who is now carrying on an affair with Brian Chubb (Christopher Moynihan), the actor who plays her brother. The final hullabaloo comes when Chuck Porter (Fred Willard) and Cindy Martin (Jane Lynch), the celebrity hosts of Hollywood Now show up on the set to do interviews. The film has been lifted into the national consciousness by all the buzz.
The director of For Your Consideration, Christopher Guest, plays the director of Home for Purim who gets into trouble with the screenwriters, Lane Iverson (Michael McKean) and Philip Koontz (Bob Balaban) when he tries to have the cast do an improvised riff on the text. The writers are further taken aback when Sunfish Classics president Martin Gibb (Ricky Gervais) comes up with some radical ideas to make the indie film more accessible to a much larger audience. We can't tell you anymore about the surprises which punctuate the finale but suffice it to say, you will be sufficiently amused.
Special DVD features include a commentary by co-writers Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, 18 deleted/alternate scenes and outtakes, and a Home for Purim poster gallery.
