''The Big Picture'' is 1989 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

starring Kevin Bacon and directed by

Christopher Guest Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948) is an American-British screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor, and comedian. Guest is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed, and starred in h ...

in his directorial debut.

Plot

Film student and aspiring writer/director Nick Chapman, an Ohio native, finds himself the winner of a prestigious student film contest in LA. Overnight, Hollywood VIPs want to make deals with Nick. He settles on a quirky agent (Martin Short) to represent him, and signs a deal with a major film studio to make his dream movie. Nick finds the Hollywood studio "process" distasteful, and is forced to make many creative compromises like adding a pop music soundtrack and aging down the middle-aged characters to college-age. He strikes a deal and uses his newfound money and fame to lease a flashy sportscar and make new Hollywood friends. Nick blows off a lunch meeting with his film school friend Emmet (Michael McKean) and distances himself from his girlfriend, Susan (Emily Longstreth). A new studio head decides to cancel his film project and Nick is left in the lurch. Unable to strike any new film deals, college-educated Nick is reduced to unskilled positions like moving man, telemarketer, and message delivery man. His life is re-enacted in film parts. Nick reunites with arty film school classmate Lydia (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and meets her next-door neighbors, an aspiring rock band in search of a director for their music video. Nick volunteers to shoot the video and it finds unexpected success on the charts. Nick's agent is flooded with interested calls as studio heads send movie and TV scripts for him. A humbled and repentant Nick reunites with Susan. He begins shooting his film as intended, in a winter cabin with middle-aged actors, with Emmet, Susan, and his parents at his side.

Cast

In addition,

Martin Short Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2019 Short became an Officer of the Order of Canada. He ...

has a significant uncredited role as Neil Sussman, Chapman's agent, appearing multiple times, with plot developments. The film features numerous, cameo, "Special Appearances":

Release

Greenlit by

David Puttnam David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which w ...

, president of

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, who was ousted two weeks after production began. According to Guest, the subsequent regime at the studio was unable to figure out what could be done with the film, as many executives at the studio didn't like the film because they felt like they were being brutally satirized in it. Columbia quietly gave ''The Big Picture'' a limited theatrical release (despite opening to positive reviews) before sending it to video.

Reception

''The Big Picture'' received positive reviews from critics, as it holds an 88% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 24 reviews with the consensus: "''The Big Picture'' aims at targets that might not be familiar to viewers who aren't well-versed in movie-biz chicanery, but hits most of them so solidly that laughter is the only option."

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Picture, The 1989 films 1989 comedy films 1989 independent films American comedy films American independent films Columbia Pictures films Films about filmmaking Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles Films directed by Christopher Guest Films with screenplays by Christopher Guest Films with screenplays by Michael Varhol Films with screenplays by Michael McKean 1989 directorial debut films Films about screenwriters Films about film directors and producers 1980s English-language films 1980s American films English-language comedy films