The Auteur Theory (1999)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Evan Oppenheimer

Writer:

Evan Oppenheimer (written by)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

They all wanted final cut -- until they got it

Plot:

At an absurdly self-indulgent student film festival, the directors of the (mostly terrible) short films start getting killed off one by one and a budding British documentary filmmaker decides to investigate. |

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Black And White

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Alan Cox	...	George Sand
Sean Gunn	...	Tori York
Daniel Cantor	...	Elliot Lewis
Armin Shimerman	...	Detective Blank
Dana Lee	...	Arthur Wong
Garrett Wang	...	Mike Wong / God
Natasha Lyonne	...	Rosemary Olson - Finalist
Angeline Ball	...	Carmela Cicero Maresca - Finalist
Rachel True	...	Sasha Swann - Finalist
Jit Sarkar	...	Asmali Jawad - Finalist
Michael Benyaer	...	Spike Levy - Finalist
J.P. Manoux	...	The Unknown Filmmaker / Mike Dong
Ana María Caso	...	Maria Hernandez
Alain Benatar	...	William Butler
Luigi Amodeo	...	Paradiso Marcopoli

Also Known As:

Mortelle théorie (France) (TV title) [fr]

Runtime:

77 min | Argentina:79 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

Theoretical Films

Quotes:

Detective Blank: Stop calling me elephant!

Movie Connections:

Spoofs JFK (1991)

** out of ****

The Auteur Theory tries hard to be a quietly clever comedy about a self proclaimed "documentary filmmaker" , who believes his work deserves attention and appreciation, and his umpteenth effort to pitch an idea to the snooty bigwigs at the BBC that will open the door to his long delayed stardom and career in filmmaking. Alan Cox plays GEORGE SANDS, the documentary filmmaker, and before he even sits down in front of the snoots, they are ready once again to reject him and send him packing. But he is determined that they should listen to him this time. He had gone to a film festival to shoot a documentary about film festivals when he became "involved in something much much bigger". This movie is not the best of its genre. It's hard even to describe the genre...maybe a comedic mystery. Cox is amusing but Natasha Lyonne, who plays a fellow filmmaker, is really dull and lifeless here. The character's wardrobe seemed interesting, but I have to say her personality was far less colorful. I liked Lyonne better in her other movies. The funniest thing about this film is the films depicted within, the horrible, unintentionally funny student films, especially "The Crap Shoot of Life".