Has-beens, ingénues, and hacks revel in the idea of being nominated for their craft’s highest honor, while writers moan as their “Home for Purim” morphs into the more ethnically generic “Home for Thanksgiving.” Jealousy and back stabbing are creeping onto the set as the big evening nears. Can the film survive the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”?

An outstanding cast of character and comic actors led by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara and directed by Christopher Guest, carry off the spoof of a Hollywood mishap very smoothly. Enjoyably original entertainment.

by Mary Morgan is a member of the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association.