Comedian-filmmaker Albert Brooks established himself as a major force in film comedy with this devastating satire on the interplay between the media and "real life." Brooks plays someone not unlike himself, an obnoxious documentary filmmaker who sets out to find a "typical American
family" and then film their lives for a year. He chooses an Arizona clan headed by Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain, who are at first enchanted with their sudden fame. But things turn sour. Normal family problems are blown up by filmmaker Brooks into crises of disastrous proportions--McCain's
trip to the gynecologist, for example, becomes an expose on her doctor. Eventually the family comes apart at the seams and members stop talking to each other. Brooks desperately tries to manipulate the family members so that they will do something in front of the cameras. Before long, he begins to
lose his grip.
REAL LIFE was inspired by the PBS television documentary "An American Family," which followed the lives of the Loud family and serendipitously documented the couple's breakup and divorce. At the time of that program's airing, critics and psychologists debated whether the presence of cameras in the
household contributed to the collapse of the family--whether the documentary merely recorded the events or helped to shape them. REAL LIFE delivers a pointed critique of the influence of media on our lives; it is also one of the funniest looks at filmmaking ever put on screen. With REAL LIFE,
Brooks pushed his way into the forefront of American comedy. Subsequent films, including LOST IN AMERICA and DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, are as insightful and funny as his first. leave a comment
