“… beautifully captures life on an indie film set, and the relationships of the people who work there.”

Last night I watched Living in Oblivion and it was a rather bizarre experience, but I mean that in a good way. For those who don’t know, Living in Oblivion is a film about low-budget movies. Living in Oblivion follows the cast of an indie film for a day on set, and chronicles all of the ridiculous problems that come up. That’s pretty much it for plot but don’t get me wrong, the film does so much with the little plot that it has.

I’ve been a fan of movies for as long as I can remember, but despite a few high school film projects I haven’t made one. That being said I know how they are made, and I can say that Living in Oblivion captures that perfectly. The characters in Living in Oblivion are so well written and portrayed that they don’t seem like characters at all. Even Steve Buscemi, who is arguably the most “recognizable” face there, disappears into his role as the film’s director Nick Reve. The film does a good job of implying that each of these crew members have a history, without explicitly saying it. This adds another layer of immersion to the film because the events play out just like they would in real life. Living in Oblivion is, according to the internet, a “Drama film” but I don’t really agree with that. I understand that there are a few dramatic scenes in the film, but I chalk those up to the film being as realistic as possible. At its core Living in Oblivion is a comedy, and a brilliant one at that. For 90 minutes we get to witness literally everything that could go wrong when shooting an indie film, and it is some of the funniest shit I have ever seen. Nothing is too over the top, which again makes everything feel all the more real. Boom mics getting in the shot, creative differences, talent being difficult, all of this and more add to this wonderful comedy of errors that is Living in Oblivion. Now Living in Oblivion did have some issues, but I won’t go into detail on them for fear of spoiling the film. One thing that I will say is that the ending of the film didn’t really sit well with me. The more I’m able to mull it over the more I like its intention, but when watching the movie it just seems too drawn out. I want to once again praise the amazing acting in the film because literally everybody did a phenomenal job. There was this undeniable sense of pride felt throughout the entire movie where everyone wanted to do things their way and not give up their integrity, but at the same time the wanted have a job. This creates these wonderful, and very relatable, scenarios that form the basis of Living in Oblivion. Unfortunately I don’t think I can write any more about this movie without repeating myself, so I think I’m going to end this review here. One last thing I want to say is: If you haven’t yet seen Living in Oblivion, I recommend you check it out at your earliest convenience. Don’t read anything about it, don’t watch the trailer, just put in the movie and prepare to have one hell of a time.

Overall Living in Oblivion is a very interesting movie, but one that I thought was great. It beautifully captures life on an indie film set, and the relationships of the people who work there. The writing is amazing, the acting is brilliant, and despite a few issues I had with it I would say the movie is genius.

I give Living in Oblivion a B