For Your Consideration

Aroview: Mockumentary maestro Christopher Guest takes a well-aimed pot shot at Hollywood’s awards season, with the core of his regular comedic ensemble (plus THE OFFICE’s Ricky Gervais) returning to satirise everything from Oscar buzz to greasy entertainment reporters.

A pincered satire that cultivates a cringe-worthy brand of laughs, this evolves into a sort comic-tragedy under the wing of Catherine O’Hara’s character: a modest journeywoman whose role in independent film “Home for Purim” generates Academy Award talk. Swept up in the fervor of a potential nomination, her decline into the vapid rituals of celebrity vanity and self-promotion is as excruciating as it is funny. Playing the role of Purim’s aging director, Guest exudes a certain cynicism in his own time left in the business, all the while exposing its fickleness through peeling back layers of the red carpet veneer.

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