Before mockumentaries were in vogue, Albert Brooks hit one out of the park with this 1979 comedy.
The Big Picture The documentary is one of the most celebrated genres of film, as well as being one of the most derided. The mockumentary has seemingly become one of the dominant strands of comedy, ranging from The Office to a litter of Christopher Guest classics.
What Is 'An American Family' About? An American Family documented the real-life Louds family and their fall from All-American to teetering on the brink of collapse. This was an attempt to document the family as they truly were, rather than a more traditional, formalized documentary. Now, you can make the claim that the cameras were just observing, and the events that took place in the series occurred naturally.
This is not to say Real Life is not a scathing takedown of both documentaries and the people who make them, it absolutely is. Albert Brooks plays a fictionalized version of himself, heading to Arizona to make a documentary about the Yeager family, on the quest to capture "real life". Now, Brooks is no stranger to playing an annoying, off-putting, or even sleazy character. He essentially made his name doing that and has continued to do it.
This is a good moment to reiterate that this film is a comedy, and it is incredibly funny. Brooks is at his best here, using his excellent sense of physical comedy and fast-paced delivery as a perfect foil to the slow, small-town Yeager family. This is classic con man stuff, with a real The Music Man or "Marge vs. the Monorail" energy to his performance.
The debate about ethics in documentary filmmaking, and if we can ever truly see something "real" will continue until the sun blows up someday. Brooks, for his part, makes his thoughts clear. Chasing reality is a pointless exercise. The camera will always be there, people will always be aware of it, and you will never see someone's true self because of that. When you make a documentary, you are part of it. You cannot remove yourself from that process, no matter how hard you try.
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