I said what I said. It’s a masterpiece. It is peak 90’s studio comedy and filled with heart, realism, and creative storytelling. This is also the reason why a writer/director comedian can make the perfect comedy, keeping lots of cooks out of the kitchen shows that Albert Brooks knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. He doesn’t
I said what I said. It’s a masterpiece. It is peak 90’s studio comedy and filled with heart, realism, and creative storytelling. This is also the reason why a writer/director comedian can make the perfect comedy, keeping lots of cooks out of the kitchen shows that Albert Brooks knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. He doesn’t muddy the water with what other creators ‘think’ he is trying to say. AND he casts almost entirely character-actors, something a studio might not have wanted without his track record.
Also, to all the actors in the room, this film is a masterclass in knowing your ‘casting’ and why content creation showcases the heart of what a character brings to a project. He spends an entire movie being – just being. He doesn’t go for the joke, he lets the joke roll over him with confusion. He knows himself. We should all be so lucky.
In an afterlife way station resembling a major city, the lives of the recently-deceased are examined in a court-like setting.
IMDb
This is his most memorable film in my opinion, maybe not the most popular, but the one I’ve been thinking about my whole life. Mr Brooks goes into why:
“I think it’s the subject of fear and death. I’ve had people say that they showed it to people they thought were heading out of here, just to give some sort of meaning where they couldn’t find meaning. And I just think that when you get into those topics, you’re going to get much more emotion. If you talk about literally anything to do with dying and what that may mean, that’s something everybody thinks about. And especially since this isn’t religious, it’s more about standing up for yourself while you’re alive. I think a lot of people have that issue.”
Albert Brooks, LA Times
Some folx might not realize what an impact Albert Brooks had on the film industry. This film is an example of that. When he was about to make this film, he met Meryl Streep at one of Carrie Fisher’s parties and Meryl Streep asked him if there was part for her in his next film. He had never considered her for this role, but after spending 2 hours talking to who he described as “Just …this casual, easygoing person who happened to be, in the story, the perfect person. And she did that effortlessly and it was great. It was great for the story. It was great for me. And I don’t think I ever would have thought of that if I didn’t actually have the experience of seeing it.” (LA Times)
“Filmmaker and actor Albert Brooks crafted portraits of contemporary life that are somehow ironic and earnest, affectionate and misanthropic, stretching their knowing authenticity to a point of skeptical absurdity.
A Hollywood kid, Brooks’ life and career cover an astonishing span of show business history. His father, Harry Einstein, was a popular radio comedian known as Parkyakarkus in the 1930s and ’40s. Dad died immediately after performing at the Friars Club induction of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1958, when Brooks was only 11. Brooks began performing on television variety shows in the late 1960s and had a successful stand-up comedy career in the 1970s. After making a series of short films for the first season of “Saturday Night Live,” he released his debut feature as a filmmaker in 1979 with “Real Life.”
What came next was a poignant and pointed series of films — “Modern Romance” in 1981, “Lost in America” in 1985, “Defending Your Life” in 1991 and “Mother” in 1996 — that were snapshots of comfortably insulated, white middle-class American life, full of foibles, anxiety, ambition and discontent. “The Muse” in 1999 and “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” in 2005 continued his streak of idiosyncratic, deeply personal comedic filmmaking.
It’s notable that in his first and, for now, last films he played characters named Albert Brooks, exaggerated creatures of show business who reveled in revealing outsize ego and insecurity.”
“Q&A: ‘Defending Your Life’ at 30. Why Albert Brooks’ view of afterlife bureaucracy endures” BY MARK OLSEN
Since this film has been made available on HBO Max, I needed to share it with the world. This is the perfect time to confront your mortality.
Here is some commentary I found fascinating as well:
Click To Watch HERE on HBO Max
