Living in Oblivion

Bomb Rating: 

(DeCillo) fills the first forty-five minutes with a string of dream sequences that are a clear feint to keep the audience from knowing what the hell is going on.

When normal people get sick of doing things, they usually try to do something that makes them less sick (this is Mr. Cranky's Rule of Life #4, by the way). Not director Tom DeCillo. Apparently, he's gotten fed up with making low budget, independent films, so he's gone off and made a film about being fed up with making low budget, independent films. Why this premise would interest anyone outside DeCillo's immediate circle of friends is beyond me.

Steve Buscemi (from "Reservoir Dogs," "Desperado" and a whole host of other films where a bug-eyed actor is called for) plays DeCillo, presumably, the director of a low budget film that's making him crazy. Since DeCillo has no purpose other than to torture us with the peculiarities of making movies, and "Living in Oblivion" has absolutely NO STORY, he fills the first forty-five minutes with a string of dream sequences that are a clear feint to keep the audience from knowing what the hell is going on. When he finally gets to the reality portion of the movie, he introduces a midget into the scenario, thereby signaling that he's making an art film.

What we learn about filmmaking from "Living in Oblivion" is that people are petty, vindictive, idiotic imbeciles and that if you want anything done right you have to do it yourself or just be incredibly lucky. Repeating, over and over, things I already know is not my idea of a well spent hour-and-a-half.

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