Living in Oblivion (1995)

10 years after I left film school this satire (so close to the truth for film students and wanna-be movie-makers) made me laugh so hard I almost couldn't breathe. Apparently it was originally a short that was so popular that writer-director Tom DiCillo got more money to flesh it out into a full length feature, cutting the black & white original film into the color footage he shot later. Tom DiCillo had directed Brad Pitt as the lead in Johnny Suede (1991) and, rumor has it, Pitt was a pill to DiCillo and co-star Catherine Keener. In Living in Oblivion James Le Gros played the prima don movie star Chad Palomino, Keener the frustrated leading lady, Steve Buscemi the beleaguered director, Dermot Mulroney the eccentric director of photography, the always-good Kevin Corrigan the ambitious assistant cameraman, and the wonderful Peter Dinklage had a cameo as the token little person.