Christopher Guest's directorial debut, a corruption-of-innocence comedy solipsistically set in Hollywood. The opening awards ceremony, with clips from four nominated student productions at the National [sic] Film Institute, puts him back comfortably in the parody mode of This Is Spinal Tap, which he co-wrote and starred in. (The intermittent fantasy scenes thereafter, in assorted film styles, are less accurately aimed.) And the standard compromises of the creative process in Hollywood, applicable to that process in other places as well, are graphically portrayed: e.g., the idiotic "suggestions" from higher up in the power structure. But this movie is itself compromised, from whatever source. The sentimental plugs for family and friendship pull a few teeth from the satire, and the Road to Ruin has too easy an access back to the Right Track. With Kevin Bacon, Emily Longstreth, J.T. Walsh, Martin Short, and Michael McKean. (1989) — Duncan Shepherd
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