Living in Oblivion
by Tom DiCillo
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Catherine Keener, Danielle von Zerneck, Dermot Mulroney, James LeGros, Steve BuscemiDirector: Tom DiCillo
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
Published: 1995-01-01
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Living in Oblivion
Movie Review: Two Major Talents Out to Amuse... Watch Out!
Summary: 5 Stars
The talents I am talking about, of course, are the director Tom Di Cillo ("Moonlight in a Box"), subsequently infamous amongst the 'independent crowd', and the star, Steve Buscemi, who here once again proves that he is one of the most versatile character actors working today. The result of these two individuals working together, a comedy about making indie films called "Living in Oblivion", is one of the funniest and intelligent motion pictures of the 1990s.Most comedies nowadays either rely on dumb physical humor (celebrities: grimace, puke, punch, scream, trip'n'fall...) or on recycled situational gags ("Welcome to Mooseport"?!) Genres like romantic comedies are sickeningly predictable (Richard Curtis/ Hugh Grant, anyone?) and sentimental. Spoofs like "Scary Movie" refer frequently to the more-successful slapstick of the Abraham/Zuckers' "Airplane!" (1980) or other earlier and funnier stabs at eccentric wit (Mel Brooks).
What we have nowadays, ladies and gents, is Robert De Niro hamming it WELL up in the gruesomely exploitative "Analyze That"; Eddie Murphy counting his paycheck in "Daddy Day Care" (where it's sporadically puked on by an annoying eight-year-old twerp) and "The Haunted Mansion" (where the paycheck should have been snatched away by Terence Stamp, who definitely got a lot less dough for the project than 'Axel', but tries a lot harder to save it from drowning in its own poop). It is a delight for us film-lovers to witness a comedy that is not desperate and/or indifferent in its attempts to make its audiences laugh, a comedy that is honest and certain of its genuinely witty concept, a comedy that is inspired rather than expired. "Living in Oblivion" is that kind of comedy.
The film's 1995 theatrical release was unimpressive due to the picture's low-budget, and a central theme that withheld limited appeal. In my opinion, neither of those factors should prevent an average film-goer with a developed sense of wit to enjoy Tom Di Cillo's little masterpiece. Despite the fact that it focuses on the intricacies and hardships of independent filmmaking, the topic is just as accessible as any story contemporary Hollywood has to offer ("Bowfinger"...). One does not have to possess knowledge of all technical aspects of producing a motion picture to appreciate the film's humor.
From the first nightmare dream sequence that Steve Buscemi's director has, the audience is hooked: everything goes wrong in each hilarious take, shot in color as opposed to the dream's black-and-white reality. Just when it threatens to stretch too long, the director wakes up (in color) and proceeds to his film shoot (in black-and-white). The dream sequence serves as an introduction of all the quirky crew members, including Dermot Mulroney's eye-patched DoP and Catherine Keener's emotional actress. The resulted nightmare is a premonition of events to get even more horrible in reality, supplemented by the established 'color switch' wackiness. And they do get worse.
Slapstick may play a part in this film, but what makes it different from the forced obnoxiousness of Rob Schneider crap is how effortlessly it is handled by the cast, which makes the slapstick a natural consequence of built-up, razor-sharp insightful humor. The script avoids cliche and pathos - it keeps the film down in reality, which allows certain character exaggerations (the blonde arrogant film star...he is by far one of the funniest single characters in film history). Steve Buscemi shamelessly adopts yet another identity - where is his "funny-lookin'" thug from "Fargo", or the geeky Mr. Pink from 'Reservoir Dogs"? In "Living in Oblivion", Steve Buscemi runs the show as the exasperated director, who has to maintain absolute tranquility with his cast and crew. Buscemi's gradual loss of cool is something to marvel. As for the rest of the cast, it is simply flawless, each character a developed individual worthy of his own feature film.
Tom Di Cillo's brilliant entrance into the filmmaking arena has everything a comedy needs: tight dialogue, witty actors who understand and aspire to their script, sublime direction that does not distract but has style, and, most importantly, the appreciation of its audience's expectations. "Living in Oblivion" respects humanity's need to laugh. I just wish that the rest of "The Dream Factory" wouldn't underestimate that need, and stop living in oblivion.
Summary of Living in Oblivion
LIVING IN OBLIVION - DVD MovieYou 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
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