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Bowfinger (Frank Oz, 1999)

Bowfinger.jpg

 

Another comedy about Hollywood filmmaking, this one written by Steve Martin, who knew a thing or two about it, that somehow passed me by when first released. Eddie Murphy plays the biggest star in Hollywood (and his cousin). Steve Martin is  making a film on the fly, starring Murphy´s character, without his knowing it. It´s full of terrific gags, a very pointed commentary on the Hollywood of the time. But the Heather Graham character comes across as too sexist now I think, and Baransky as an earnest, slightly deluded diva, doesn´t quite make up for it. Robert Downey is very good as a Hollywood insider. Murphy is phenomenal.´We´re trying to make a movie here, not a film!

The Spearchucker bit above and the Buck the Wonder Slave gag below are terrific:

 

José Arroyo

 

 

By NotesonFilm1

Spanish Canadian working in the UK. Former film journalist. Lecturer in Film Studies. Podcast with Michael Glass on cinema at https://eavesdroppingatthemovies.com/ and also a series of conversations with artists and intellectuals on their work at https://josearroyoinconversationwith.com/

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