Real Life
Directed by Albert Brooks
Written by Monica McGowan Johnson, Harry Shearer and Albert Brooks
1979/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Albert Brooks: Our research was so thorough the computers actually coughed up two perfect families. If I were a liar, I could tell you that we chose one over the other for complicated psychological reasons. But I’m a comedian, not a liar. I can afford the luxury of honesty. The Feltons lived in Wisconsin; the Yeagers lived in Arizona. YOU spend the winter in Wisconsin…
I thoroughly enjoyed Albert Brooks’s first film, a mockumentary.
The film was made in homage to “An American Family” which was a multi-episode TV show on public TV. In it an embedded camera crew captured many intimate moments in life of a dysfunctional family. The show was quite controversial.
In this movie, Albert Brooks gets the same idea. But the “rules” are ridiculously complicated, the technology is hilarious, and the director (Brooks) is clueless about people, a control freak and an idiot. The plug is pulled after only two months of the year long experiment.
My humor and Brooks’s humor are on the same wavelength. I hadn’t seen this one before. I kept getting a “This Is Spinal Tap” vibe. Then I noticed that Harry Shearer who co-wrote this and appeared as as one of the helmeted cameraman was also a co-writer and performer in Spinal Tap. This film made me laugh and I loved it.
A MUST SEE – hilarious! None of this appears in the actual film
