For Your Consideration, 2006.
Directed by Christopher Guest.
Starring Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, and Fred Willard.
SYNOPSIS:
Christopher Guest’s hilarious Hollywood send-up For Your Consideration, which does to Tinseltown what This is Spinal Tap did to heavy metal bands, makes its Blu-ray debut in this new disc from Warner Archive. It’s a worthwhile upgrade from the original DVD, although no new bonus features were commissioned for this disc. What’s here, though, is worth your time, especially if you’re a fan of this one.
Christopher Guest’s consistently funny 2006 movie For Your Consideration, which was co-written by him and Eugene Levy, features an ensemble cast skewering every vapid Hollywood ideal, including the fawning media that hangs on every bit of Tinseltown news as if it’s the most important piece of information ever heard.
The film follows the making of Home for Purim, a movie co-written by a pair of playwrights-turned-screenwriters (played by Bob Balaban and Michael McKean) and starring a cast played by Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Christopher Moynihan, and Rachael Harris.
Ed Begley Jr. plays a fawning make-up man while Eugene Levy is Shearer’s oily agent, and Jennifer Coolidge is the film’s producer. Ricky Gervais shows up for a few scenes as an overbearing studio executive who wants the director (Christopher Guest) to “tone down the Jewishness.”
The retitled Home for Thanksgiving ends up generating buzz in Hollywood, which creates excitement about Oscar nominations for the cast members, none of whom handle the newfound attention well. It’s not hard to guess where the story goes from there, but the fun of For Your Consideration is the way it roasts the way people in Hollywood often react when fame and fortune are dangled in front of them.
Yes, the film is a bit dated in its depiction of the way the Internet operates and the out-sized influence of celebrity gossip shows, but you have to remember it was made before social media upended a lot of that. If it was made today, obviously there would be plenty of references to Facebook and Instagram, but the underlying motivations of the characters would remain intact. Show business really hasn’t changed much from its earliest days and likely never will.
I believe this new Blu-ray edition of For Your Consideration from Warner Archive is the film’s debut on the format, many years after a DVD edition that was felt to be subpar, although I never owned it. I’m not sure if any restoration work was done for this disc, but the movie looks great, with a nice, crisp image and a moderate amount of film grain. Details look good too.
The bonus features were ported over from that aforementioned DVD, with nothing new created for this disc. The extras kick off with a commentary track by Guest and Levy, who deliver an informative conversation about the making of the film. Unsurprisingly, they’re funny here and there too.
The rest of the extra content is nearly 39 minutes of footage cut from the film. This is the kind of movie that can easily go in all kinds of directions as it follows its many over-the-top characters from one absurd situation to the next, and the footage found here demonstrates that.
Much of it is just as funny as the full film, which feels about right at 86 minutes but could have easily accommodated a few more scenes. But that’s a minor quibble about this one.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
