It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Tom DiCillo's (yeah, never heard of him either) thinly veiled attack on (1) Brad Pitt and (2) Indie film-making is a movie about making movies joining much better films such as "Barton Fink" and, to a lesser extent, "The Player" in this sub-sub-subgenre. It follows the always corpse-like Steve Buscemi as a director just trying to film two scenes in a seemingly awful low-budget independent production that has the distinction of snaring a megastar who is trying to build cred played by Brad Pitt look (sorta)-alike James LeGros. The Pitt character (the comically named Chad Palomino) is pure satire of the spoiled star who believes their least inventive whim is pure genius while the others are fleshed out to the extent that we get a look into their interior lives, anxieties and to some degree hopes. There are extended dream sequences, some attempts at "Spinal Tap"-esque humor (and the smoke machine went crazy!!!!) and a whole lotta characters tossing F-bombs at one another (shocking!!!). Everyone on the set has slept with a least one other person, Buscemi's addled mom shows up and the whole mess tries way too hard to be either funny or poignant or insider hip or something. If you ever wanted to see Buscemi try to carry a film or if like to feel hip by picking a movie that makes fun of movies themselves you might enjoy this -- I didn't. If you want a movie about movie-making, try "Hooper", the 1978 Burt Reynolds vehicle about stuntmen making movies. Believe it or not, there was a (really brief) time when Burt Reynolds was so bankable that studios would sign a blank check and let he, Hal Needham, Dom Deluise, Mary Lou Henner, sometimes Sally Fields and random celebrities like quarterback Terry Bradshaw or drunk (may he rest in peace) Dean Martin just go out and wing it in front of the camera. "Hooper" is a complete mess but actually entertaining as opposed to tightly directed and produced but only conceptually entertaining.

Having spent the better half of the last 7 years working on both sides of the camera, I can sympathize with filmmakers and actors. Most people have this mistaken notion that "All you have to do is push a button and act a little here and there." But that is not the case at all. Whenever the camera is rolling and the director calls "ACTION", practically anything could happen... and often does! What's so great about LIVING IN OBLIVION is that Tom DiCillo turns the camera around and shows us what really happens behind the scenes. And nothing is spared. We get to see the odd mix of nerves, ennui, exhaustion, desperation, disappointments, and surprises, deftly handled with a comedic touch. Steve Buscemi (who is no stranger to directing) gives his best performance as Nick Reve, the quirky director who tries to keep everything from falling apart. And if ever a struggling filmmaker needed some inspiration, this movie would grant it! For anyone thinking of making a movie, I'd highly recommend watching this movie and "American Movie" on a double bill!

"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 frustration and turned his experience into a smart, funny, playful, and highly enjoyable second feature "Living in Oblivion" that takes place during one day of shooting a low budget film. Photographed with the color-to-black-and-white transitions, "Living in Oblivions" has surreal, strangely poetic and amusing quality to it.The cast is solid and consists of DiCillo's friends who are the regulars in his films. Steve Buscemi, the king of independent movies, in the rare starring role, plays Nick Reve, a long-haired, dedicated but frustrated director who in the moments of creative inspiration has to get back to earth and to deal with the tensions between his leading lady (Catherine Keener, before her star-making turn in "Being John Malkovich" but already a wonderfully talented beautiful and sexy actress) with whom he is silently in love and the male star, arrogant egotist Chad Palomino (James LeGros does an un-flattering but hilarious and quite accurate impersonation of the real life model for Chad). If these problems are not enough, there is eye-patch wearing sensitive leather-clad cameraman named Wolf (Dermot Mulroney) who went through a painful break-up right on the set. There is a great scene with an irritated dwarf Tito (Peter Dinklage) who was hired for a dream sequence and who hates dreams with the dwarfs in them: "Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who's had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don't even have dreams with dwarfs in them. The only place I've seen dwarfs in dreams is in stupid movies like this!" There is also a smoke machine that explodes every time when turned on...And to top it all, Nick's senile mother surprisingly shows up during the shot and eventually saves the dream sequence and the movie. That's what the mothers are for, aren't they?

Its been years sense I've seen this movie but the fact that It sticks out in my memory tells me it was one of the best independents I've ever seen.One of those diamonds in the ruffs.Amovie you may watch,just because your board and if your like me,you hate a movie in black and white unless it was made before color.The movies so good that doesn't even matter.Hard to find.Looks like it was made on a shoestring budget but worth seeking out.A movie about making a movie.Sounds boring but to me at least it wasn't.