 |
 |
| Directed by Frank Oz; Starring Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Terence Stamp, Adam Alexi-Malle, Jamie Kennedy, and Robert Downey, Jr. |
Like my affinity to dark comedies, I also quite enjoy satires. Sure there have been many bad satires over the years, but when they succeed they can be some of the biggest treats in film history. Look at the political satire All the King’s Men. Not only is it generally considered a masterpiece in American cinema, it also won countless awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1949. While that is my choice for the best satire ever, my choice for the best type of satire is satires on the Hollywood system. I will be first to admit that there have been a great deal of atrocious Hollywood satires (An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, anybody), but then there are classics like All About Eve and Contempt that make up for anything that Joe Esterhaus could make look awful. Bowfinger is just such a Hollywood satire. It has a biting commentary on what American audiences as well as those abroad have found to be the big Hollywood action picture. Names like Michael Bay and Simon West come to mind, being overturned and cowered by the guy that voices Yoda in the Star Wars films!
Though not nearly as successful, Bowfinger does for modern day movie satire what The Truman Show did for television satire. The film is about the attempts of a small production company run by Bobby Bowfinger (Martin) to make a big action/sci-fi film that can mark success for the company and those involved. Armed with a script he sees as mesmerizing, Bowfinger sets out to get a producer interested in the film. As a joke, a big shot producer (Downey, Jr.) tells Bowfinger that he’ll give the film a go if he can get Kit Ramsey (Murphy) to star. Since there is not a chance that Ramsey will do the film, Bowfinger begins filming anyway, having actors walk up to Ramsey and read their lines, letting his real reactions serve as fright from aliens attacking the world in chubby rain. After coming to the fear of aliens taking over the planet, Ramsey goes into exile to get back on cue, leaving Bowfinger without a star. So he finds himself a look alike named Jiff and gets underway on his big project.
I loved the feel and the touch of the film on the Hollywood system. Though admittedly not the most knowledged on the subject, I do read Variety and keep up with the latest film news (and not from Entertainment Tonight). I must say that no film has so perfectly hit the behind-the-scenes detail of films like this since Robert Altman’s The Player. The film knows exactly what it’s doing and where it is going. I’m not too surprised that it is so well written since it is by the great Steve Martin, who has a better grasp on comedy than any of the younger actors going around in comedies right now (I’d dare say that Martin and Bill Murray are the official choices for best working comedians). Not once was I bored with the film. I also think that the film easily works for someone that knows very little about the Hollywood system, with its line of in-joke free comedy. It is actually a rarity that I give a comedy more than a B rating, but ,without a doubt, Bowfinger deserves the B+ it garners.
