There are a few inevitabilities in life – Mark Twain famously defined them as “death and taxes”. When it comes to Hollywood, you can add another – as long as the film industry thrives, there will be a concerted effort to keep telling stories about themselves. Those in showbusiness absolutely adore the sound of their own voices, and unsurprisingly there have been many works in which they reflect on the industry in some way. Whether comedy or drama, or anything in between, it’s difficult to avoid the proverbial sub-genre of the “film about filmmaking”. However, as predictable as these stories may be, this doesn’t invalidate them in any way. In fact, there are some true masterpieces we’ve seen produced over the years that explore a range of themes within the film industry itself, crafting legitimately strong and very intriguing insights into the many different aspects of Hollywood. It’s even more enthralling when these films are made by people with some history in the industry, either going through the gruelling system themselves, or inheriting their place in cinema through connections or familial legacy. For Christopher Guest, a healthy combination of both fueled his directorial debut, the terrific The Big Picture, in which he takes aim at Hollywood as a whole, which was a risky choice for someone who did have some appeal as a potentially major filmmaker (based on the works that he had written or acted in), drawing on both his own upward journey from a minor-league comic to someone with massive amounts of success, as well as his own bizarre encounters with some members of the artistic elite, likely a result of being married to the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, two of the most well-regarded actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age and beyond. All of these fuel The Big Picture, a film that may not always be as successful in exploring certain themes as we’d imagine, but which has a clear level of wit and candour that can only come from someone who has willingly put himself through the emotional and psychological wringer of the film industry.

The Big Picture is an oddity of a film, especially in hindsight. Technically, there is nothing all that remarkable about it on both a narrative and visual level – it focuses on a rambunctious young student filmmaker that gets a quick bout of fame after a very successful short film wins a major prize, placing him at the very top of the industry for a brief moment, before his inability to play by the rules causes him to rapidly descend back into obscurity. The peculiarities that define the film are far more subtle. Primarily, this is not a film that resembles anything else Guest has made – it was his debut as a director, so we don’t have anything to compare it to in terms of prior filmmaking efforts, but considering his first peak of fame came in the form of This Is Spinal Tap, and nearly all of his later directorial ventures would be styled in the mockumentary format that Guest may not have pioneered, but which he certainly perfected (and in a way that many don’t realize is highly influential), making a relatively straightforward comedy seems like an underwhelming choice for someone whose aptitude was so clearly with a different style altogether. It isn’t a particularly funny film in the way that we’d expect from a master of outrageous humour like Guest, who instead depends on jokes that are expanded through the entire film, subtly flowing beneath the surface before reaching a fun but otherwise predictable crescendo after a while. The story of a young man undergoing the psychological roller-coaster that is the Hollywood studio system has a lot of potential, and Guest certainly wastes very little time in proving his ideas to be valuable, which only makes The Big Picture more rich, since it seems to be coming from a place of genuine experience – and while his pathway into the industry was quite different than that of his protagonist, there are certainly several very strong ideas that keep the film afloat, even when it is sometimes struggling to find its identity.

The theme of identity is actually quite interesting in the context of this film, since while The Big Picture isn’t too concerned with more internal struggles beyond that of the main character’s very early impressions of Hollywood, it has a satirical edge that is unexpectedly deep. The film looks at a young man who experiences success and failure, realizing that making it in the industry is not a linear process, nor is it one that is easy to maintain. Guest argues throughout this film that it is often more difficult to hold onto fame than it is to achieve it in the first place – countless potential filmmakers take risks and never make it all that far, and are then allowed to simply fade into obscurity, having tried their best but just not having the mettle to make it in the industry. Those who do catch the attention of those elite few that matter have a much more difficult task – not only do they have more to prove, they have the added challenge of being at the heart of an industry that destroys careers faster than it builds them, which can sometimes cause the most unfortunate downfalls, far more tragic than the stories of those that tried to make it but never could. Hollywood is a volatile place, and showbusiness rarely demonstrates pity for those who try and step into their world. It adds up to quite an interesting satire – the only problem is that it just isn’t all that funny, and you can tell that Guest was trying to reconcile his own background in the world of comedy with the intimidating challenge of forming a film around it – unlike This Is Spinal Tap, in which he had an authorial voice in his capacity as one of the creators of the characters and as a writer, but where the more challenging tasks were handled by Rob Reiner in his position as director, The Big Picture placed Guest at the helm, and it was clearly something of a challenge to bring all of these ideas to the screen in a way where the teething problems were not evident. Perhaps it’s not enough to dismiss the film outright (since it is still very good), but it lacks the spark that we may normally expect from such satires, especially since they often follow similar formulae in terms of lampooning the showbusiness culture.

Guest does make good use of the connections he made in his personal and professional life in terms of populating The Big Picture with familiar faces. This is an ensemble-based film, and we see many great actors and comedians make short appearances, several of them having previous experience with Guest, whether casually or as a part of prior work. However, the film orbits around the character played by Kevin Bacon, who is very good in the role, taking the part of a young filmmaker who experiences both the hubris of fame and the terror of the downfall that comes when he realizes that pride cannot sustain a career, especially one with as little experience as his. He is joined by a cast that includes the ever-reliable Martin Short, the charming Jennifer Jason Leigh and Emily Longstreth, Teri Hatcher (who was carving a niche for herself as beautiful but manipulative women that take advantage of those around them), as well as the deeply underrated J.T. Walsh, whose blend of warmth and intimidation makes his performance as an unsettling producer so compelling. There are a range of uncredited cameos that show up for a scene or two, which is certainly not anything unprecedented, especially in a Hollywood satire – these films are usually made by people with connections, and there are many actors that don’t mind showing up on set for a day’s work under the belief that they can do the bare minimum in roles that are all about the person playing them than their actual function in the story (any exposure is good exposure in this industry) – and all ultimately serve to define the protagonist’s journey towards artistic maturity, which is a challenging uphill climb that is well-executed by Bacon and the rest of the cast, many of them being very strong and meaningful work.

There’s a reason The Big Picture is rarely called Guest’s best film, or considered one of only a couple of works that many forget that he directed – it’s a footnote on an otherwise perfect career (excluding the dreadful Almost Heroes, possibly the darkest moment in his career as a filmmaker, a film that has seemingly been entirely forgotten, and for good reason) – and it just doesn’t have that same spark that made his other films so exciting. However, it isn’t without merit, and there are several ideas that underpin this film that make it at the very least interesting to unpack in terms of its satire. It does lack a certain edge that was necessary for such provocative conversations on the nature of Hollywood (Robert Altman would perfect this a few years later with The Player, a film that is a perfect companion piece to this one in terms of their different outlooks on similar subjects), and its sense of direction is one that is often underdeveloped in the way that we can easily tell that this was a directorial debut, but the rare kind that is from someone who has been making his way through the industry for several years, and thus didn’t have the same obstacles of having to establish himself in the same way as those younger filmmakers who arrive without any direction and simply hope for the best. It’s a very entertaining film, one that is grounded by a good script and strong performances – and while it is undeniably minor, it has a lot of decent detail that makes it quite enjoyable, even if only as a charming glimpse into the more sordid side of Hollywood, rarely being ambitious enough to show the bleaker side of the industry, but still having a caustic wit that will be riveting to those who want a decently-made, well-told satire about the perpetual circus that is Hollywood and its progeny of demented offspring.