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Real Life (1979) More at IMDbPro »

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17 comments in total

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
YOU spend the winter in Wisconsin!, 4 January 2006

Author: Justafilmwatcher from Canada

In _Real Life_, Albert Brooks makes fun of just about anything: the movie industry, the 'nuclear family', intellectuals, horse owners, furniture refinishing, urine testing, technology, Wisconsin ...

This film is a gem. Every character is played so transparently that someone could be fooled into thinking Charles Grodin really is a disoriented and bumbling father and husband. Albert Brooks plays 'himself' to the point where he must have needed therapy after making this film.

Vanity projects are usually tedious. This turns the 'vanity' genre (yeah, there is one!) on its ear. And it's probably one of the most 'American' films I've ever seen. Great stuff!

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Real Life Is The Most Underrated movie ever!, 3 February 1999

Author: connerg-2 from Ellensburg, Washington

I think what most filmmakers say when they watch a great film is "I wish I made that movie". This is one of those movies. Not only is this a comedy classic, I would say that this movie is ground breaking. And way ahead of its time. Albert Brooks, proves that he is one of the funniest comedians ever, and in my opinion one of the best actors on the screen. And the ending is simply brilliant, and at the same time "Hilarious". I would like to tell you more, "But I don't have the time, or the cord!"

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Albert the Great, 7 February 2000
Author: krumski

There's no question that Albert Brooks is not for everybody - his particular blend of neuroticism and egomania can be way too much for most people. But if you can get on his wavelength, and when he's at his best - oh man! There's absolutely no one better. Real Life is Brooks' best movie, and deserves to be more widely known than it is. His portrayal of a controlling producer, who is willing to violate not only broadcast ethics but the standards of decency and good sense as well in order to inject life into his failing "documentary" is frightening, off-putting and truly hilarious all at once.

When I first saw this movie, I didn't realize it was based on an actual television experiment. I bring this up only because when I first saw the film, I felt its only flaw was that it didn't spend enough time showing the family and their disintegration in front of the cameras, choosing instead to focus almost exclusively on Brooks and his manic responses to the dilemma this posed. However, knowing that the real life experiment would have already been familiar to people, Brooks clearly wanted to use this movie to examine not the family but the bankrupt commercial mindset which would put such a project into play in the first place. As such, his satire is dead on and nobody could more perfectly embody the entertainment industry than Brooks himself. Just to see him smarmily singing and glad-handing at the beginning is worth the cost.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
An experiment gone crazy..., 17 March 2007

Author: Benjamin Wolfe from USA

Local 'madness' in an Arizona small, one horse town. Based on a show shot in Santa Barbara California in 73' a first reality show, that went horribly wrong! It was a hit, but the family was never the same. This is an off the cuff answer to that first reality show, that I believe may have gone lost in translation.

Sure this starts out interesting and goes right along, showing a small Arizona Phoenix as the place where the real family will be followed by a camera and crew, in the home, in their lives and all over the place. It seems at times so depressing and so real in parts... that it hurts just watching. That's not bad when it seems that it is real. Brooks has a creative and wild mind. With it all some how he can lose people in his presentation. It isn't that he is not talented, he just sees things through a different ' lens ' than most average do.

If more people had been informed of why and how the movie came about, I think it would have done better at the theater. Albert Brooks is an entertaining creative craftsman and his work and acting shows to those who can follow what he is about.

I recommend this movie for it's madness and reality type-lore but the fun part is seeing the Arizona from the seventies and how different it is today. Brooks will always be good at his job I believe, but you have to understand the mind from which it comes. (***)

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
REAL funny, 15 April 2006

Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Albert Brooks wrote and directed this goof on the PBS landmark "An American Family" and it's hysterical. Trying to record the day to day banalities of an average American family, film-maker Brooks and company are as intrusive as possible while trying to be invisible --- the cameraman wears large orb-like headgear.

As the "everyman," Brooks wisely casts Charles Grodin, then at the height of his career and perfect playing the kind of inept father/husband just itching to be caught doing the most absurd things. Nobody is better at losing their grip than Grodin and Brooks eggs him on until he explodes. Brooks doesn't just film the family, he invades their lives and captures a lot of uncomfortable moments like a gynecological exam! REAL LIFE is a masterpiece of comic discomfort.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Albert Brooks may be the funniest man alive!, 16 December 1998

Author: jcosper from New Albany, IN

This movie killed me! I got it off the PVT sale rack at Blockbuster. A major find, if you ask me. You can't even begin to describe Albert Brooks' humor. It's so complex, you have to see it to understand. Once you understand, you'll laugh your head off!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A Brilliant First Feature!, 17 February 2000

Author: epp678 from United States

Any Albert Brooks fan who has not seen his first glorious feature is truly missing out. As anyone can attest, Brooks has the rare gift of turning ordinary human moments into riotously funny scenes, and this film is full of such moments, plus much more subversive material, like the way Grodin's character repeatedly comes perilously close to committing a felony against his family.

Perhaps the greatest joke of all is that while the character "Albert Brooks" continuously states how he is documenting real life, we all know that this is really a star vehicle for him. He is more concerned with how much everything costs, like the head-held cameras (for those who haven't seen it, imagine the result of torrid affair between Dave Bowman and the Hal-9000). This film, more that anything, is a satirical take on how Hollywood subverts what is really "real life," all this coming from a director with as great a grasp on how humans relate to one another than anyone.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Albert Brooks is the ultimate farceur., 4 September 1999
Author: Dan Bonk (dan.bonk@accglobal.net) from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

'Real life' is the perfect send-up of the worst scenario possible for a film maker shooting a documentary, i.e., what happens when your subject matter loses interest in the project before completion? Albert Brooks, as the seemingly besieged director of this 'loaf of reality' year long vigil with a typical American family, walks a fine line between egomania and neuroticism and scores with broad belly laughs both ways. Charles Grodin as the head of the suburban clan from which this film within a film emanates exudes his special brand of bland exuberance at the beginning of this captive camera stakeout inside his home(and everywhere else he may go) provided his life is depicted as letter perfect from day to day. When such is not the case and the obtrusive lenses are interfering with his job as a veterinarian, (in a sequence that has to be seen rather than described) then Grodin regards the camera presence as nothing more than an albatross and mentally switches himself off. Albert Brooks, meanwhile, never says quit. Every so-called hair in the eye of the lense is still a perfect scene regardless of the participation or lack of it, thereof, from his celluloid family. For Brooks regards this film as 'paramount'(oops) over the desires of his cast of characters. Brooks facile mind works methodically from beginning to end. From his perspective, nothing can go wrong, everything is in its place with a place for everything. So when his documentary and the human equation around it blow up in his face , his conferences with colleagues are hilarious as he tries various remedies to salvage not only his project but his self-image. Brooks is a comic delight as a man who cannot take criticism regarding his methods and his interaction with project staff are decidedly one-sided, but in the capable hands of this farceur, his myopic viewpoint is always good for guffaws galore. Real life should be this funny.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Best of Al Brooks, 17 January 1999

Author: K. Stuart from Illinois, USA

"Only six of these were ever made. Only five ever worked. We have four of those." IMHO this is the best movie Brooks ever made. He plays an egocentric, inept film director who turns a simple movie into a botched science experiment. The high-tech gadgetry is ultra low-tech these days. It's a gem of a movie. If you haven't seen it, it is well-worth renting -- or buying.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Along with Spinal Tap..., 23 December 2002

Author: mwprods from New York, USA

...this is one of the funniest American movies of the late 20th century, and like 'Tap' it also mines the rich vein of documentary-film arrogance. Brooks' strength as a comic observer lies in his self-obsessed insincerity, a man of riotously extreme unction. It's almost impossible to pick a favorite scene from this spoof, especially for industry insiders.

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