This film pokes fun of the Hollywood system and how people put movies together. It follows a young film director fresh out of film school named Nick Chatman played by Kevin Bacon. Maybe you have heard of the Kevin Bacon game? It is where you try to link Kevin to other actors that he has worked with. Christopher Guest who is an actor and musician as well directed this; and helped write the screenplay with Michael Varhol. Fellow actor Michael McKean also helped write the screenplay. He plays the role of Emmet Sumner in this film.
The character Nick Chatman is the centerpiece of the story, and you see the interaction between him and a wide array of different characters throughout the entire film. It begins with him at an award show being honored for his short film that he did. It gets the attention of a particular studio executive named Allen Habel played by the late J.T. Walsh. He then presents him with the chance at directing his very own film with a much larger budget. Nick is very eager and excited at the idea having the chance to bring his film to life, which is set in the wintertime, within a cabin with a rich character driven storyline.
Nick is also in a relationship with his girlfriend Susan Rawlings who he has been dating for a while played by Emily Longstreth. He makes friends with Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays Lydia Johnson she also attended the same film school that he did. They put together a music video for her friend which catches the attention of Allen Habels assistant Todd Marvin played by Don Franklin. From this point on, the Hollywood buzz begins, and everyone is out to get a piece of Nick begging him to work with them. Earlier on he struggled to get people to notice him at all.
Nicks agent is played by Martin Short who was uncredited for this role as Neil Sussman. He plays an off the wall strange man with smarmy-like qualities. Teri Hatcher plays a sexy seductress named Gretchen who only starts to pine after Nick when she thinks he is successful to further her acting career.
More of the cast includes: John Cleese playing a Bartender, Richard Belzer plays a Video Show Host, Eddie Albert as M.C., June Lockhart as Janet Kingsley, Roddy McDowall as the Judge, Kim Miyori as Jenny Sumner, Nancy Valen plays Young Sharon, Dan Schneider plays Jonathan Tristan-Bennet, Jason Gould is Carl Manknik, Tracy Brooks Swope is Lori Pressman, Gary Kroeger is Mark, Fran Drescher plays Polo Habel, Elliott Gould who was uncredited plays a Prosecutor, Alice Hirson is Mrs. Chapman and Grant Owens is Mr. Chapman.
If you are interested in the way movies are made or just like a good comedy then this will interest you. It wasn’t over the top laughter, but it had some funny moments in it. I think most people will probably enjoy this one. The tagline for this was “Hollywood Reel To Real”.
