Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration proves the premise of one of my personal eternal truths… There are two types of people in the world: first, the highly competent who are too insecure to know it; and second, the stunningly incompetent who have nothing but self-(albeit deluded)-confidence. For Your Consideration is a photoplay illustrating in glorious comedy part two of my theory.

I guess you could say “the gang is back”—the whole SCTV / Spinal Tap / Waiting for Guffman / Mighty Wind crowd has made a new movie. The premise here is that they turn the cameras on themselves, underscored by the whole Hollywood buzz that percolates when someone uses the word “Oscar” during the filming of a new independent movie. My guess is that nearly every movie cast has this hopeful buzz floating around in its collective head. For Your Consideration takes a hilarious look at the world in which hopefuls and heroes alike spend their time trying not to think of it. Here we see a world full of mind games—of scrabbling for recognition, hoping against irrelevancy, and fighting father time.

The idea for these folks is to make fun of Hollywood in general and themselves in particular. Job well done, I would say. Turning the camera on yourself takes great personal fortitude (or enough blows of rejection to be calloused).

The performances in this film are first rate. Eugene Levy is at his best as a greasy self-absorbed agent. Fred Willard is a sublime and astonishing joy to watch. His performance makes the film worth every dime to see. The members of the long cast list are brilliant. What a delight!

There is no doubt a lot of liberal ad-lib license in this movie. It is a typical Guestian mockumentary wherein the cast of For your Consideration is also the cast of a fictitious film-in-progress called Home for Purim. Take a hint from this quirky show title that the characters will be odd—so lovably odd, so over the top, that they arrive flat footed in the wilderness of misfits. Of course they are none the wiser; see eternal truth #2, above.

The inspiration for this look at Hollywood came from some personal experience and a “funny idea” that came up in conversation. In pre-release notes, Eugene Levy describes the buzz in his head when he had the misfortune of having his name bandied about for a best-supporting Oscar for A Mighty Wind. Christopher Guest hit pay dirt with Levy’s high concept. His style has always been to portray the man in the street within his own disproportionate dreams and grandiose failures. This time Hollywood D-listers and their attendant D-irt bags find themselves in the impossible situation of being at the top, precariously, of the A list—where obviously none of them really belong. They mostly just succeed in making As of themselves.

Pay close attention to party scenes, TV spots, and obligatory mixers where these misfits have no business being. These Wrong Way Feldmans are in way over their heads and are the antithesis of the mixer metaphor. They are like oil meeting water.

The party scenes are great fun. Eugene Levy and Guest make us laugh so much because they know of what they mock. They have been victimized themselves—hence this movie’s basis in reality. No question Hollywood has its share of stuffed shirts, windbags, also-rans, and residents of a descending alphabet, simply because Hollywood has humans in it. Not unlike other industries. The really funny part is that the cast of Home for Purim are people who really should be in other industries. But alas they are not, and my gosh are they funny when they get the Oscar bug!

Christopher Guest and company hit a home run with For Your Consideration. The audience I saw the film with laughed with me at every scene. Judging by the couple sitting in front of me, For Your Consideration is a great date movie, too. I believe you will have a great time at this film. It is funny stuff.

For Your Consideration is rated PG-13, which is what I expected. Nothing too offensive. Some expected cleavage—but surprisingly, nothing over the top.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Mike attended a publicity screening of For Your Consideration.