LISA PICARD IS FAMOUS
US, 2001, 90 minutes, Colour.
Laura Kirk, Nat de Wolf, Daniel London, Griffin Dunne.
Directed by Griffin Dunne.
Lisa Picard is Famous is a spoof documentary about a documentary on being famous. Lisa Picard is a young actress in New York City with great ambitions. The film follows her and her ambitions, her quests, her auditions, her getting a part in a telemovie with Melissa Gilbert. It also focuses on her personal life, her chance encounter with Sandra Bullock and her sister in a laundromat, her wanting to be famous.
She has her fifteen minutes in the public eye - but is cut from the telemovie. Griffin Dunne has directed a number of films including Practical Magic and Addicted to Love.
1. An entertaining spoof documentary, a fake documentary about making a documentary? The tradition of This is Spinal Tape and the work of Christopher Guest? The quality of this spoof, its focus on ambitions, celebrities, performances? Its being sufficiently realistic yet having the ironic touches?
2. The work of the cast and the writers, drawing on their own experiences, performances, Griffin Dunne as director of the film and his taking a role?
3. The film as a New York story, its use of the city, Times Square? Apartments, halls for auditions, Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway? The score and its comments?
4. The opening, the focus on celebrity? The aim of the documentary? The discussions about fame? Posture, presence, the hopefuls and their collage? Lisa Picard and seeing her before she was famous? The choice of Lisa? Laura Kirk and her performance? Lisa in herself, her background and dreams, apartment, the Wheat Chex and the reaction? Offers? The Xena type of heroine? Her analysis, especially the non-verbal? The kids in New Jersey, resumes, photos? Revealing herself to Andrew? Hating the rush for the advertising audition, the reaction? To her agent, not getting the role? The television movie and its hype? The be-all and end-all of ambition? Her meeting the director, in himself, the apartment, friends, the gay issue and bursting out, the advice to Lisa, his own homosexual dilemmas? The play, acclaim, the guest spots of Lee and Sheen? The transformation, fame, café and work?
5. Her boyfriend, awkward, the television movie, proposal? The actual filming, the phone calls, her despair about its being broadcast?
6. Lisa with people, meeting Sandra Bullock and her sister, with her agent? Yet her being deflated? The business of being a star?
7. Terry, transformation, the meeting?
8. The humour in the variety of situations of people? The zip of the dialogue?
9. The director and his role, his own ambitions, the end? Her being cut from the telemovie?
10. The overall impact, an understanding of the ambitions of actors, seeing them in real life before they became famous, the struggles, the range of people with their problems? The overall impact of an entertaining fake documentary?
