Living in Oblivion (1995)

[Edgy MD]

A low-budget film crew (headed by a director played by Steve Buscemi), struggle through technical problems and personality conflicts to get a few simple scenes shot in an abandoned-Manhattan-warehouse-turned-"studio."

[Guest sharpie]

Saw it when it first went to video (so, like 20 years ago). I remember thinking the first part was hilarious and liking the movie in general (though I can't remember much past the opening).

[TransMonk]

sharpie wrote: Saw it when it first went to video (so, like 20 years ago). I remember thinking the first part was hilarious and liking the movie in general (though I can't remember much past the opening).

Same. I think of this film whenever I see Catherine Keener.

[Edgy MD]

It was originally going to be just the first part. (There are three parts to this film, representing the shooting of three different scenes, but without spoiling, it's more complex than that.) Director Tom DiCillo's friends convinced him to expand it to a feature length, and they raised money for him. Two of them got decent roles in the film as a thank-you.

The film was supposedly inspired by DiCillo's struggle to make his previous picture, Johnny Suede, Brad Pitt's first big starring feature, and one of the characters is supposedly based on Pitt. (DiCillo denies this but it sure is an appealing thought.)

What's great is what a time capsule of the nineties this is. Nineties actors like Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney, nineties styles, rundown New York. Even the style of the film within the film and the mystical jazz soundtrack come right out of the era, and Buscemi's haircut seems to have been transplanted right off of Matthew Sweet's head.

Good footnote: this film was Peter Dinklage's debut. His role is small but he owns the film when he's onscreen, and latter-day reissues of the film feature Dinklage on the poster/DVD box/digital download thumbnail.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: His role is small

You went there.