Customer Reviews

Real Life

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Writer-director-comic actor Albert Brooks has done consistently solid work since this film but it remains his very best. It is a parody, astonishingly enough, of TODAY'S work on tv yet he made this film in 1979! Tv today is parlaying extensive money out of real life situations, whether based on survival or marrying millionaires or some other new trend of the day. These are big reasons why I don't watch tv anymore. If you are unfamiliar with Brooks, who also plays the "auteur" director in the film, you must understand two things about him. One, he always plays obnoxious characters and this is perhaps his most obnoxious ever. Two, he is absolutely merciless on portraying himself as obnoxious. His delivery is straight on and deadpan and totally works. Brooks's character does not have an iota of real self awareness and this too is typical of the roles he creates for himself in all of his films. This is Brooks's satiric look at a documentary purportedly capturing a year in the life of a typical American family. Charles Grodin, low key as usual, is fantastic as Warren Yeager, the Phoenix, Arizona, veterinarian who is largely passive and ineffectual. He, his wife and two children are easily overwhelmed by the callous Brooks as auteur. There are so many delights to this film that it is hard to name them all so here are just a few. Brooks showing you his choice of camera, a piece of headgear that looks like a robot suit and is all but extinct; Brooks kicking off his film in AZ before an audience of townspeople by breaking into song; Brooks capturing the wife's OB-GYN md on camera and unmasking him as a "60 Minutes" subject; Brooks capturing Yeager (Grodin) malpracticing on a horse patient on camera and Yeager's trying to remove that segment from the film; the production meetings Brooks conducts with his producer sitting in by speaker phone, telling him what's wrong with his movie and why showing real life will not "play" in America and that what he really needs is James Caan (who was hot in 1979). I saw this movie when it first opened at a film festival and have seen it many times in succeeding years. It is always absolutely hilarious and unfortunately prophetic about the "thrills" audiences of the future would want from the media.

This has got to be Albert Brooks near his best. A real funny movie. Make sure to get the DVD version of this with the extra interview with brooks (circa 2001)
and don't forget to watch the trailer for this movie also on the DVD. It is hysterically funny and as good as any scene of the movie.

As a (comparative) young'n, I first experienced Albert Brooks through his movie Defending Your Life, which I adored for years (still do). I checked out each movie after that ("Mother" and "The Muse") with equal glee. Having finally checked out his previous films, I was amazed to find that "Real Life" and especially "Modern Romance" are rather different beasts from the inventive but largely harmless later works. Brooks in his prime is not just a brilliant satirist, but a master of the goulishly uncomfortable situation!

Observe the palpable fear given off by Charles Grodin as he tries to dissuade Brooks from showing the footage of him losing one of his patients (he's a veterinarian, so he loses a horse. Big animals are funnier than little ones.) on the table due to his error. Or check out the "put your couch pillow over your face and scream silently" scene in "Modern Romance" where Albert calls a random woman in his roladex, having just broken up with his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Of course, the uncomfortable nature of the scene is intensified by the fact that Albert has just taken two quaaludes before making the call. Watch him confess his love to a woman who he later admits, "I'm not QUITE sure who she is or where I know her from." Wow! A long way from the clever but unassuming takes on the afterlife and the misadventures of a greek muse in the 20th century. The closest he's come in recent films is "Mother," which I had the mis/fortune of seeing with my own mother! What a relief that my own laughs of recognition were covered up by hers, as she related all of the matronly satire to her own mom!

Since everybody in this set of reviews is naming their favorite lines from "Real Life," I'd like to mention two of mine, during the great "testing possible candidates for the project" section of the film. More than just about any humorist I can think of, Brooks' jokes here are so under-the-rader, they're almost invisible.

"The participants were put through an enormous battery of tests. How many tests? Well, if you were to convert the tests to eggs, there would be enough eggs to feed the entire city of New York for three weeks, based on a two egg per person per week diet. Sound confusing? It was."

"Participants were given fifteen tests, such as this one here, Test #85."

Albert Brooks is such an underrated comedian and filmmaker, he's probably always going to be seen as a second-tier artist (at best). Admittedly, just about all of his films contain some sort of flawed element or something that just doesn't really work, but my God, the man just keeps on trying SO HARD. Every three to five years, he releases a new and completely entertaining and remarkable film to a society that might vaguely remember him from Saturday Night Live, and who seem to be slightly miffed that he hasn't taken the hint and quietly disappeared. I'm so admirous of him.

This may be the funniest movie I've ever seen. I have watched it countless times and I never get tired of it. You have to watch this more than once to catch everything. Albert is SO obnoxious and SO egotistical to the point of utter madness. One of the funniest scenes is when Dr. Cleary abandons the project. You've got to see it to believe it. There are so many unforgettable funny lines in this film, too. "I'm not a scientist, I'm a comedian, I can afford the luxury of honesty." SEE THIS MOVIE------STUDY IT------WORSHIP IT

This film was a satire on a (mostly forgotten) documentary about the Loud family, in which they followed the family through every facet of their lives. Brooks takes that idea and runs with it to the extreme degree. To a degree that it goes past ridiculous, never losing site of funny, mind you, and ends up in prophetic.

Everything he says in this film rings true for todays reality TV craze. If you were told this was made this year, you'd believe it.

This is very likely Albert (Einstein; no really, look it up) Brooks' best film, as a writer, actor, or anything. It is wholly his vision and style of comedy. The film is played dead straight, from the talk about the laborious selection process, to the technical details about the special cameras worn over the cameraman's head, giving them an eerie Big-Brother look. ("Only five were made, only three worked...we have two of those.")

He tracks this family for a year, slowly but surely making their lives an emotional hell, just by being there to watch it. The act of observing an experiment changes the parameters of the experiment, or so the scientific tenet goes. This whole film is an analysis of that theory, as seen through google-eyed glasses.

The Truman Show and EdTV beat Television to the punch by about six months, making a film that was just a hair more ridiculous than what TV was doing. The recently released film Series 7-The Contenders tries to parody the genre as it exists now, and does it well. Brooks did this film TWENTY TWO YEARS AGO. Just let that bounce around your head. Then realize that you have very likely never seen the best satire of today's television ever.

Vinnie, wearing a clown suit and holding a gas can.

Real Life (1978) After directing some short films shown during the early days of Saturday Night Live, Albert Brooks made his feature directing debut with this somewhat prescient comedy about an average American family (including Charles Grodin-Midnight Run and Frances Lee McCain-Gremlins) who agree to let fast talking show business hipster Albert Brooks (as a cheesier version of himself) spend a year filming their lives for a reality program. Of course nothing goes as planned, and soon everyone is getting pretty crazy filming and being filmed 24 hours a day. Written by Brooks, Monica Johnson, and Harry Shearer (of all people), this one works fairly well, starting off funny, getting a little soft in the middle, then coming back on track for a bright wrapup. Among the high points: hearing Shearer's now familiar voice on the radio a time or two; hearing controversial Hollywood producer Jennings Lang provide a vocal cameo as (what else?) a money worshipping Hollywood producer; the always welcome Grodin; Brooks himself, unafraid to make the movie version of himself obnoxious and annoying (a bit like a slightly lower key 70's Vince Vaughn); and the eerie moments when this nearly 30 year old movie seems to be psychic, predicting the rise of reality entertainment, and my fave of all: the scene where Brooks explains the filming technology to his subject family, showing them a purposely goofy looking whole head helmet the cameramen will wear to shoot the footage. Asked where the film is in the camera, Brooks replies there is no film, the helmets will record the images and sound digitally, with chip boards that are removed so the footage can be edited, with a fresh chip board inserted for more filming. Kind of like my digital still camera and its memory card. Wow. Maybe this technology was already being researched in 1979, but considering it took tech super guru George Lucas another 20 years to film something digitally, that's a pretty amazing prediction. That is a slight digression, however, so to wrap the movie up-a definite recommendation for fans of Brooks or Grodin, keeping in mind that soft middle section. Others seeking entertainment might be better advised to try a different Brooks film like Modern Romance or Lost in America.

Anyone who is into that whole 'Simpson's' style of humor should really enjoy this. A movie way ahead of it's time, it features Albert Brooks as a semi-psychotic filmmaker who is making a movie about Charles Grodin and his family. There are so many comedic bits that work here; The tension between Albert and the Black journalist Dr Cleery is hilarious; The scene with the show horse works quite nicely, as does Brooks sudden singing at the start of the film. For those who appreciate Brook's unique sense of humor, I can't imagine you would find fault. And for a movie that was made in the late 70's, it's still funnier than stuff that came out last week. Harry Shearer contributed to the script, stars, and offers his voice to the radio playing in Charles Grodin's car. Grodin is in top form here, too. Constantly depressed('She set the table...He set the mood...'), Grodin makes a perfect counterpart to Brooks and his hair-brained mania. Also, it should be noted that the narrative, provided by Brooks throughout, is a constant source of comedic 'gold'. This film is smart, different, and, and the title of this review indicated, hilarious.

I can't believe I never heard of this movie 'til now. Albert Brooks has always been great, and this ties "Lost in America" as one of his best. I know people in the local TV biz who are just like Brooks' character--always putting a positive spin on any situation no matter how disastrous to avoid production delays and keep on shooting. I couldn't help but laugh everytime I caught a glimpse of one of the helmeted cameramen--I like how they're just kinda floating around in the background, jockeying for the best shots and looking totally ludicrous. "Real Life" is a real classic!

I saw this film about two years ago. I was on a business trip and was checking the channels. Something about this film caught my eye and I watched it. I was in tears! This is quite possibly one of the funniest ideas ever found on the screen. Brook's use of involving his character with the family he's presenting to the public is brilliant. The reaction of the family is histerical. And one only needs to watch for ten minutes to see one of the camermen ("the latest in technology for 1979!"), one terrific idea again.

Albert Brooks may be the most creative comedian of this and the last century (his real name is ALBERT EINSTEIN after all; and you can look it up)

This first film is hilarious; obnoxious; and all together FUNNY! Brooks rarely if ever plays sympathetic characters in his movies; all the while skewering people who are the same in "real life". This is the ultimate put-on movie; may have influenced in some way the later films of Christopher Guest. Some of my favorite bits are Albert's "back burner" confrontation with the black consultant, His appearance at the front door in clown makeup (listen for his in-character "hello?" before Grodin opens the door-for some reason it always makes me LOL), most of the preparation experiments for what amounted to a month or so of filming (instead of the hoped for year)before it collapsed are hilarious as well. Brooks may have made better films but this is still the most original of them all.