Just one of the most engaging, likable, watchable films I've ever seen.What?!!! I am not going to write 9 more lines of fluff to satisfy some arbitrary requirement by the web site. You want a comment to improve the site? Stop with the 10 line minimum. Brevity is the soul of wit. Q.E.D.Now is the time for all good men...I could have Danced all night, I could have danced all night and still have begged for...Oh, Hi, White Fang. Is that meringue pie for me?The good ol' song of Wah-hoo-Wah, We'll sing it o'er and o'er... It cheers our heart and warms our blood, To hear them shout and roar.

Steve Buscemi plays a character named Nick, a frazzled, stressed out director trying to make a low-budget independent film, in this fictional movie from real-life director Tom DiCillo. It's an insider's look at the world of film-making, wherein everything that can go wrong on a set does go wrong, from actors who forget their lines, to unwanted, extraneous noise, to fragile egos among the various "stars". The film clearly makes the point that life on set of an independent film is tedious, grueling, and frustrating.The film starts off in B&W, then changes to color, then switches back and forth between B&W and color. Most of the scenes are indoors, and consist of simple, basic film sets; there are almost no outdoor shots. Parts of the plot consist of various dream sequences; this can get a tad confusing, but I guess it really doesn't matter, since the entire story is a fantasy anyway; one might even construe this ambiguity as a homage to Fellini's classic film "8 1/2"."Living In Oblivion" is billed as a comedy. Indeed, there are some funny segments as, for example, when Chad Palomino (you gotta love that phony Hollywood name), the hotshot stud with the huge ego, tries to out-direct the director. On the other hand, the film's plot can be irksome when it becomes repetitive. Numerous "takes" of the same scene not only are frustrating for Nick; they're frustrating to us viewers as well.This film gets points from me for being different. I also like the film's theme of crew collaboration. Overall, "Living In Oblivion" makes a good effort at showing what life is like on a movie set. That's a perspective that most outsiders probably will find interesting.

This is for anyone who's ever tried to make a movie, or worked on a low/no budget film, it's a laugh-generator engine... but ya gotta be on the inside to really get some of the jokes."Living in Oblivion" is that wonderful kind of film that pulls you in, gives you a few points of reference, and then turns things upside down in classic screwball fashion.As a screwball film it follows all the conventions of the genre, but with a great twist, so that we become unsure if we're watching "real life", or some approximation of reality.The story is about an independent film director, attempting to complete his film, based on his own personal experiences- Or at least that what the film seems to be about at times.Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is trying to complete his low/no-budget film in Raw Space Studios in New York, and things just keep going wrong, from his pretentious cinematographer Wolf (Durmot Mulroney) who ends up wearing a beret and eye patch to star actor Chad Palomino (James Le Gros) who keeps re-interpreting every scene in the movie that the crew is trying to shoot. Things start going wrong right from the get-go when Reve tries to shoot a one-shot dolly in on a scene where Nicole (Katherine Keener) and Cora (Rica Martins) are daughter and mother emoting about a past event in the family. As the action progresses we discover that those in charge of making the film within the film are less than capable to the task. Things reach a nerve-wracking level when we suddenly discover that we are inside the nightmare of the director, and the action begins again. Later to complete a fantasy section for the film a dwarf actor is hired, Tito (Peter Dinklage) to act in a scene with Nicole, but things keep going wrong with adverse reactions to the script and Nick's direction. We're never sure if the "movie" gets finished but old wounds get salved and another day of creating is successfully completed.It's the little touches in the film that make this inside joke such a pleasure.Highlights are the scene with Nicole and Cora, where we feel that real emotion is being observed and something pure is artistically derived, only to be sidetracked by the incompetent bumbling of the comedy of errors that make up the film crew.Another great section is the one where Nicole and Chad are trying to finish a scene after having sex the night before and carrying all the baggage from that involvement onto the set, with all the accompanying vulnerabilities standing in their way of connecting creatively.The other great section is when we discover that Cora, the mother character of the character in the film within the film earlier, is really the director's own mother. Confused? It's all very funny once you start putting it all together in your own mind.There are some really great quotable lines in this comedy. When you want to really insult an actor call him a "Hostess Twinkie Mother F*****"- you get it when you see the movie.Another great bunch of lines: Chad Palomino: "Ya know the only reason I took a part in this movie is because someone said you were tight with Quentin Tarentino. You're nowhere man!" Tito: "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 seen dwarfs in dreams is in stupid movies like this!" Although the movie "Living in Oblivion" will appeal specifically to film-connected people and those who have attempted to create a crew-involved film, even normal people will find laughs in it.You'll come back to this film again and again to look at single scenes to laugh at the stuff that goes on.

This is "The Actor's Nightmare" for the film industry. The entire ensemble cast is perfect, both "names" and unknowns.If you've ever been involved in making a film (even as a student), your heart will ache for them even as you laugh out loud -- and quite probably even if you have no personal experience with film-making you'll have new insights on why making something where the finished product runs a relatively short time can take forever to capture.I initially thought "Chad Palomino" HAD to be a sendup of Brad Pitt -- and while listening to the director's commentary I nearly choked hearing him say Pitt was originally slated to play that role but ended up with a conflict (apparently finishing "Legends of the Fall") and had to back out.Steve Buscemi, already a favorite of mine from many indies, is a revelation in this film; he has a "leading man" quality, for lack of a better term, that I hadn't seen from him before (presumably because his "look" makes most directors loathe to cast him as anything but an odd duck), but he's still as interesting as in anything else I've seen him do.Spend some time with this film; you won't be disappointed!