Living in Oblivion [Region 2]
starring: Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros
directed by: Tom DiCillo
directed by: Tom DiCillo
![Living in Oblivion [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CSZA1QTRL._SL160_.jpg)
Price: $24.99
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Amazon.com:
You won't find a smarter, more amusing, or more accurate send-up of low-budget filmmaking than Tom DiCillo's 1995 independent feature, Living in Oblivion, wherein a motley cast of would-be artistes blunders its way through a day on the set. Steve Buscemi plays goateed Nick Reve, a harried, sweating director whose crew of numbskulls and egotists seems hell-bent on ruining his film. The trials and tribulations of independent filmmaking are not foreign material for writer-director DiCillo, who cut his teeth as Jim Jarmusch's cinematographer on 1985's Stranger Than Paradise before going on to direct his own work, such as the offbeat 1992 comedy Johnny Suede. Like that film, Living in Oblivion rides a precariously thin line between the real and the surreal, featuring a midget actor and an exploding smoke-effects machine, as well as a ridiculously narcissistic Brad Pittesque character played by James Le Gros. While films like Get Shorty, François Truffaut's Day for Night, and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt suggest that moviemaking is hip and glamorous, Living in Oblivion will have none of that. The film within the film feels like a director's primer on what not to do, and this modest-budget gem both lovingly and caustically strips the "cool" veneer from the filmmaking process. They should show this one to kids thinking of entering film school. It might make them think better of it. --Nick Poppy
You won't find a smarter, more amusing, or more accurate send-up of low-budget filmmaking than Tom DiCillo's 1995 independent feature, Living in Oblivion, wherein a motley cast of would-be artistes blunders its way through a day on the set. Steve Buscemi plays goateed Nick Reve, a harried, sweating director whose crew of numbskulls and egotists seems hell-bent on ruining his film. The trials and tribulations of independent filmmaking are not foreign material for writer-director DiCillo, who cut his teeth as Jim Jarmusch's cinematographer on 1985's Stranger Than Paradise before going on to direct his own work, such as the offbeat 1992 comedy Johnny Suede. Like that film, Living in Oblivion rides a precariously thin line between the real and the surreal, featuring a midget actor and an exploding smoke-effects machine, as well as a ridiculously narcissistic Brad Pittesque character played by James Le Gros. While films like Get Shorty, François Truffaut's Day for Night, and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt suggest that moviemaking is hip and glamorous, Living in Oblivion will have none of that. The film within the film feels like a director's primer on what not to do, and this modest-budget gem both lovingly and caustically strips the "cool" veneer from the filmmaking process. They should show this one to kids thinking of entering film school. It might make them think better of it. --Nick Poppy
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- 3.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
A smart, biting, and very funny comedy about the perils of independent filmmaking, Living in Oblivion always feels accurate even when it enters the realm of satire--worth a look if you like comedies in which no one farts.
Rating: - Just watch Keener and Buscemi
It's just fun -- a hilarious film. Touching moments as well. Buscemi and Keener are certainly two superb "under-the-radar" actors.
Rating: 
- Not what I hoped for. Much worse.
I love the odd art film and had many people recommend this film. It just didn't work for me. I love most of the actors in it and tried really hard to see the funny but I just found it dull and below amateurish in execution. Thank God for Peter Dinklage; he gave me the few laughs I got from the entire production.
Sometimes low budget is just low quality as well. Fortunately, most of the good actors here have moved on to far better fare.
Rating: - "Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?"
"Living in Oblivion" (1995) - is a 91 minutes long low-budget independent movie about trials and tribulations during making a low budget independent movie called.. "Living in Oblivion". Writer-director Tom DiCillo made in 1991 a film called "Johnny Suede" starring a young and unknown at the time actor named Brad Pitt. "Johnny Suede" was a failure with both critics and viewers but an artist can learn from any experience however disappointing or devastating it is. DiCillo wrote a short story from his ... Read More
Rating: 
- Living in Oblivion
This hilarious send-up is a both a loving tribute to the art of filmmaking and a farcical rendering of DiCillo's real-life experiences on the set of his previous indie breakout, "Johnny Suede." Never before has the absurdity and madness of trying to orchestrate the making of a movie been so nuttily and honestly captured. Keener, Mulroney, and Le Gros (whose character is modeled after Brad Pitt, star of DiCillo's debut) are fabulous, and Buscemi--scrawny, seemingly malnourished, and deeply agitated- ... Read More
- 3.5 stars out of 4The Bottom Line:
A smart, biting, and very funny comedy about the perils of independent filmmaking, Living in Oblivion always feels accurate even when it enters the realm of satire--worth a look if you like comedies in which no one farts.
- Just watch Keener and BuscemiIt's just fun -- a hilarious film. Touching moments as well. Buscemi and Keener are certainly two superb "under-the-radar" actors.
- Not what I hoped for. Much worse.I love the odd art film and had many people recommend this film. It just didn't work for me. I love most of the actors in it and tried really hard to see the funny but I just found it dull and below amateurish in execution. Thank God for Peter Dinklage; he gave me the few laughs I got from the entire production.
Sometimes low budget is just low quality as well. Fortunately, most of the good actors here have moved on to far better fare.
- "Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?""Living in Oblivion" (1995) - is a 91 minutes long low-budget independent movie about trials and tribulations during making a low budget independent movie called.. "Living in Oblivion". Writer-director Tom DiCillo made in 1991 a film called "Johnny Suede" starring a young and unknown at the time actor named Brad Pitt. "Johnny Suede" was a failure with both critics and viewers but an artist can learn from any experience however disappointing or devastating it is. DiCillo wrote a short story from his ... Read More
- Living in OblivionThis hilarious send-up is a both a loving tribute to the art of filmmaking and a farcical rendering of DiCillo's real-life experiences on the set of his previous indie breakout, "Johnny Suede." Never before has the absurdity and madness of trying to orchestrate the making of a movie been so nuttily and honestly captured. Keener, Mulroney, and Le Gros (whose character is modeled after Brad Pitt, star of DiCillo's debut) are fabulous, and Buscemi--scrawny, seemingly malnourished, and deeply agitated- ... Read More
