For Your Consideration

Do we really need another movie about moviemaking? asked Mary F. Pols in the Contra Costa, Calif., Times. Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal and David Mamet's State and Main were entirely forgettable. Now director Christopher Guest tries his hand 'œin the navel-gazing realm,' having already skewered dog owners (Best in Show) and folk singers (A Mighty Wind). This time, it's Hollywood's turn in a film about the making of a low-budget movie called Home for Purim. Fortunately, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times, the members of Guest's repertory company act 'œlike kids playing dress-up in an attic on a rainy Saturday afternoon,' and the mood is infectious. In this Jewish Southern Gothic free-for-all, the actors fake accents as thick as molasses and shriek 'œMama' at every opportunity. Mama is a dying matriarch played by Catherine O'Hara doing an inspired riff on Geraldine Page 'œin her grandly aggrieved Southern mode.' Mama's husband plays Irv the Foot-Long Weiner in TV commercials, and the couple's daughter Rachel takes the film even more over the top by bringing home her lesbian lover. To just about everybody's astonishment, said Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News, the film is touted for an Oscar when it comes out. Suddenly, the backers want its 'œ'Jewishness' toned down,' and rename it Home for Thanksgiving. Seriously, though, O'Hara's inspired performance deserves a nomination. 'œAcademy members, you know what to do.'

Rating: PG-13

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