‘Hey! That’s my eye patch and I don’t want anyone else wearing it...’
Films about filmmaking have a tendency to be self-indulgent circle jerks. Living in Oblivion succeeds because it is an impassioned love letter to independent filmmaking whilst also celebrating the myriad of frustrations and obstacles that define low-budget productions. While it hasn’t left much of a cultural footprint, Living in Oblivion serves as a welcome reminder of the level of innovation inherent in ’90s cinema…
Hotshot director Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is an artist. Sure, he’s rumoured to be friends with Quentin Tarantino, but for Nick, it’s all about cinema. Unfortunately, his leading lady Nicole (Catherine Keener) is having a confidence crisis, his director of photography Wolf (Dermot Mulroney) is an eyepatch-wearing maniac and the big-name star (James Le Gros) he has hired to lend the production some prestige is a hack.
Utilising dream logic, occasional lapses into black-and-white filming and a hilarious cameo from Peter Dinklage, writer-director Tom DiCillo perfectly captures the reality of what it takes to create something. Rather than glitz and glamour, it is all too often blood, sweat and tears that get the damn thing over the line. Or sometimes you just need a little help from your mum, played on this occasion by Rica Martens.
Living in Oblivion is a curio but cinephiles and artists of all flavours will find a lot here to enjoy. Not least and rare and wonderful leading role for Buscemi and a nuanced and complex performance from Keener. It is also a testament to the project that the entire cast worked for free such was their faith in the material.