For Your Consideration (2006)

Three actors learn that their respective performances in the film "Home for Purim," a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.

Director:

Christopher Guest

Writers:

Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy

Stars:

Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey

3 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Catherine O'Hara	...	Marilyn Hack
Stephen Rannazzisi	...	Studio Gate Guard
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Sandy Lane
Eugene Levy	...	Morley Orfkin
Harry Shearer	...	Victor Allan Miller
Christopher Moynihan	...	Brian Chubb
Christopher Guest	...	Jay Berman
John Michael Higgins	...	Corey Taft
Carrie Aizley	...	Pam Campanella
Stephanie Courtney	...	Boom Operator
Suzy Nakamura	...	First AC
Jim Piddock	...	Simon Whitset
Jane Morris	...	Script Supervisor
Jennifer Coolidge	...	Whitney Taylor Brown
Jordan Black	...	Whitney's Assistant

Storyline

Hollywood send-up. No-name actors are making a low-budget period drama called "Home for Purim," when an anonymous post on the Internet suggests that one performance is Oscar-worthy. Then, two more cast members get Oscar-related press: buzz in "Variety" and appearances on TV prompt the studio executives to insist on changes in the script in anticipation of a blockbuster. Jump ahead a few months to the days before Oscar nominees are announced: just the possibility of a nomination has changed the actors' lives. Agents, publicists, make-up artists, local celebrity reporters, and other bit players round out the backstage ensemble. Hooray for Hollywood!

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Plot Keywords:

actor | purim | publicist | internet | make up | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Cinema Blend - Poster Warner Indepentent Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

22 November 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Es lebe Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$372,012, 19 November 2006, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$5,542,025, 21 January 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shangri-La Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For her character's apparent face lift in the latter half of the film, 'Catherine O'Hara (I)' simply maintained a stretched face during takes, using no makeup nor additional aids to achieve it.

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Goofs

When Chuck (Fred Willard) is starting the ensemble interview for Hollywood Now and says "Three, two, one, and hit 'em!", his mouth isn't moving in sync with the words.

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Quotes

Whitney Taylor Brown: Someone's killed their children and made them into cookies, and I want to go see that.

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Connections

References Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

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Soundtracks

Hooray for Hollywood
Written by Johnny Mercer and Richard A. Whiting
Performed by The Flavin Five

User Reviews

Skewering Oscar Buzz with Laughs and Surprising Vitriol on Guest's Non-Mockumentary Satire

I look forward to Christopher Guest movies in the same way Ralphie did for his much beloved Red Ryder BB Gun in "A Christmas Story". Drenched with his deadpan wit, Guest's mockumentaries have been such well-targeted show business satires that it's hard to know when the script stops and the improvised reality begins. But that's a lot of the fun with his films, even though his newest is easily the most structured of the bunch. Along with constant co-writer and co-star Eugene Levy, Guest picks a target ripe with possibilities in this 2006 comedy, the Oscar-baiting season prior to the nominations, and surprisingly foregoes the direct interview format in favor of a more traditional narrative. I have to admit I miss some of this dynamic because the on-camera realism resulted in some of the funniest moments in the previous films.

Gratefully, what has been kept from his other films is Guest's stellar ensemble company of comic actors, and this time an even larger cast has been gathered, none of whom disappoint in this outing. The plot focuses on the production of a low-budget studio-bound film, "Home for Purim", a WWII-era family melodrama about a Jewish family in Georgia coping with the mother's terminal illness and the daughter's emergence as a lesbian. Directed by an authoritarian nebbish with an Art Garfunkel hairdo named Jay Berman, the film looks to be an overly sincere piece of tripe, but a blogger on one of the movie sites has predicted leading lady Marilyn Hack, a resigned, over-the-hill B-actress, will be nominated for an Oscar. This starts an Oscar buzz that engulfs the two other nominal principals of the movie, hot-dog pitchman Victor Allen Miller and "serious" actress Callie Webb, and the tidal wave of publicity drastically changes the direction and marketing campaign of the movie even before it's completed.

Guest and Levy fully capture the superficial pandering that occurs when the buzz is in full swing, and they particularly ridicule the ignorance and outdated thinking of those who find themselves in this lightning-in-a-bottle situation. There are acidic jabs at all the infotainment programs - "Entertainment Tonight", "MTV TRL", "The Charlie Rose Show" and "Ebert & Roeper" – but this is character-driven farce, and several stand out. In a brave turn as Marilyn, the wonderful and ever-dependable Catherine O'Hara superbly captures the almost overnight evolution from forgotten, timeworn actress into botox-infused, cleavage-squeezing A-lister wannabe. Harry Shearer gets his best showcase yet as the put-upon Victor whose mouthy agent Morley Orfkin refuses to take his calls until the buzz hits them. As Callie, Parker Posey is more in reactive mode here, though she has a funny Sandra Bernhard-like bit with her character's one-woman show, "No Penis Intended".

Everyone else gets less screen time, but they all provide memorably riotous contributions – Guest as Berman, Levy as Morley, Jennifer Coolidge as clueless producer Whitney Taylor Brown, John Michael Higgins as bromide-spouting publicist Corey Taft, Don Lake and Michael Hitchcock as the Love It/Hate It movie critics, Michael McKean and Bob Balaban as the academic screenwriters, Ed Begley Jr. as Marilyn's fey hairdresser (and biggest fan), Ricky Gervais as the oily studio honcho, and best of all, as the entertainment TV co-hosts, Fred Willard as mohawk-moussed Chuck Porter and Jane Lynch as gam-showcasing Mary Hart-knockoff Cindy Martin. I imagine Guest's reputation is the reason you see such high-profile actors like Sandra Oh and Craig Bierko in nothing more than bit parts here. The film takes a sharp turn toward the end that adds surprising vitriol to the laughs, and the vituperative tone makes the proceedings all the more devastating and resonant. More like "A Mighty Wind" with its dramatic undercurrents, this one is not as laugh-out-loud as "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show", but it shows a continuing maturation in Guest's film-making technique that is most welcome.