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The Big Picture

100 votes

Hollywood beckons for recent film school grad Nick Chapman, who is out to capitalize on the momentum from his national award-winning student film. Studio executive Allen Habel seduces Nick with a dream deal to make his first feature, but once production gets rolling, corporate reality begins to intervene: Nick is unable to control a series of compromises to his high-minded vision, and it's all he can do to maintain his integrity in the midst of filmmaking chaos.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1989-09-15

Runtime: 100 mins

Director: Christopher Guest

Spoken language: English

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Drama

Original title: The Big Picture

Production Companies: Aspen Film Society

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Kevin Bacon

Emily Longstreth

J. T. Walsh

Teri Hatcher

Michael McKean

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Kim Miyori

Jonathan Tristan-Bennet

Dan Schneider

Jason Gould

Tracy Brooks Swope

Don Franklin

Gary Kroeger

Alice Hirson

Grant Owens

Reviews

Wuchak

**_Satire on Hollywood and the filmmaking process with Kevin Bacon_** After a film student from Ohio (Bacon) wins an award for his short movie at the film institute in Los Angeles, he has to carefully traverse the minefield of the system to get his artistic vision made. JT Walsh plays a manipulative producer and Martin Short a dubious agent. “The Big Picture” (1989) is an amusing look at the moviemaking process in Hollywood. The humor is mostly droll or quirky and viewers not up on the business might not relate to some of it, which could explain why the flick flopped at the box office. I wouldn’t want to blow time & money on seeing it at the theater, but it works well enough for home viewing on a quiet night or whatever. Winsome Emily Longstreth stands out on the feminine front as the protagonist’s girlfriend, Susan. She was a minor female sensation at the time who worked with the likes of Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Rob Morrow, Molly Ringwald and James Spader, but she left acting entirely by the early 90s, reportedly falling into substance abuse, mental illness, and living in homeless shelters. It’s rumored she died in early 2015, but factual info is hard to find so I can’t verify this. Teri Hatcher is notable as wannabe starlet Gretchen; it was her movie debut. Meanwhile Jennifer Jason Leigh is on hand as hipster Lydia while Fran Drescher shows up as the producer’s wife, Polo. The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in the Los Angeles area. GRADE: B-

2024-04-10

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