The Auteur Theory (1999) User Reviews

Good anarchic fun!

[anarchyinnyc · 5/10 · 4 June 2002]

I really enjoyed this movie and it's spirit of anarchy. Featured everything under the sun, and the kitchen sink (if ya know what i mean).

But why didn't it have more New York in it? there was one hilarious over-the-top student film called "young and hungry in new york", which was great (looked like the lower east side to me), but i would love to have seen more of New York in this movie. I have a feeling most of it was shot somewhere else, the movie never really says.

Still, this movie shows that anarchy can be funny!

Murderous

[tedg · 27 June 2003]

Spoilers herein.

I am deep into a study for a book on folding in film. "Folding" is a general term for various types of selfreference, awareness, self-creation and reflection. The very idea behind my study is that this is a very useful thing to understand and use because it makes things more powerful. When exposed as the point of the art -- as in "Adaptation" or any number of similar films -- it serves as a fun playground, for particularly intelligent games.

This film puts the lie to that. It doesn't work. It isn't fun. It DOES march through a few of the folding types I have categorized: films about other films, films that make themselves, films about the pretense of folding, films where the game of detecting gets wrapped up in both the story and the story about the story. Judges judging judges.

Metadocumentaries.

But there isn't a shred of cleverness, not a speck of fun. Even "Final Cut" was better. What could have made this work was better reflection between the two panels of judges and the revelation that the redhead executive was the murderer for reasons having to do with artificially enhancing the folding.

When Chris Guest tried this, he knew that the films within the film within the film had to be really good. JJ Leigh worked in "The Big Picture."

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 4: You can find something better to do with this part of your life

can't say I liked it...

[b_scheim · 2/10 · 26 December 2001]

I just watched this movie on the The Movie Channel about an hour ago, and frankly, I must say that I am shocked to see that the 18 people who voted for it here averaged a 7.0 in their ratings of it. The plot is already explained here so I won't go into it, but I really must voice that I thought this was a truly awful movie. I understand that that may be "part of the point", the "in" joke on independent filmmaking, but what I viewed was a thoroughly - and at times, painfully - bad film. The art of satire is to mirror life while leaving an artist's touch (of opinion); however, if this is dir. Evan Oppenheimer's genuine take on indie films, he is missing something big. The basic idea for "The Auteur Theory" really isn't bad, but the script and acting are so genuinely awful that they really make it impossible for this film to convey itself as any kind of a legitimate satire. Maybe I'm just missing something, I don't know, or perhaps I don't know enough about the inner circles of independent film-making to be able to see how this film succeeds; but if that is the case, then what are we supposed to think of a film so "smart" that its audience doesn't even get it?

Or maybe, this was simply a bad film by a bad director who failed to convey his criticisms, let alone cast them as satire. If this is the case, then bam!, you hit the mark Oppenheimer.

A funny poisoned love letter to independent filmmaking

[garageland · 9/10 · 3 December 1999]

If you've seen a lot of independent films, and have a sense of humor about them (i.e. appreciate them but can laugh at some of the absurdities of them and their world), you should really enjoy this film. It's got a lot of inside jokes about student and low-budget filmmaking, but also lots of stuff that the average moviegoer should catch. Also, a very cool cast. Natasha Lyonne from "Slums of Beverly Hills" and "American Pie" is one of the stars, and there are lots of other recognizable faces.

Very good, not perfect

[Stevie Meehan · 9/10 · 7 May 2002]

Caught this movie on Showtime. Very funny writing, some really clever directing (especially in the intentionally-bad student films). Suffered a bit from what I call "first film-itis", but that's not really a big deal. Actors did a good job.

Film was obviously done on a low budget, but the filmmakers did a good job of taking advantage of that, as much as they could. I would've been glad to have caught this on the big screen.

I give it 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

Most clever film of the year

[william_butler · 10/10 · 6 December 2001]

Just caught this on The Movie Channel. Downside: it's occasionally a little goofy. Upside: it's really funny most of the time, and more than that, it's INCREDIBLY clever. Looking forward to more and bigger films from this guy.

Quite clever and enjoyable

[wodehousefan · 10/10 · 4 June 2002]

Well, I certainly had a good laugh -- actually, many good laughs -- while watching this film. Quite clever stuff, and a delightful savaging of the pretensions of student and "indie" filmmakers.

Especially enjoyed the exploits of The Unknown Filmmaker -- perhaps, following in the footsteps of the protagonist here (the delightfully-named George Sand) I'll do my own documentary, "In Search of The Unknown Filmmaker"!

A rousing cheer for this film, what what!

** out of ****

[PeachHamBeach · 17 April 2002]

The Auteur Theory tries hard to be a quietly clever comedy about a self proclaimed "documentary filmmaker" , who believes his work deserves attention and appreciation, and his umpteenth effort to pitch an idea to the snooty bigwigs at the BBC that will open the door to his long delayed stardom and career in filmmaking. Alan Cox plays GEORGE SANDS, the documentary filmmaker, and before he even sits down in front of the snoots, they are ready once again to reject him and send him packing. But he is determined that they should listen to him this time. He had gone to a film festival to shoot a documentary about film festivals when he became "involved in something much much bigger". This movie is not the best of its genre. It's hard even to describe the genre...maybe a comedic mystery. Cox is amusing but Natasha Lyonne, who plays a fellow filmmaker, is really dull and lifeless here. The character's wardrobe seemed interesting, but I have to say her personality was far less colorful. I liked Lyonne better in her other movies. The funniest thing about this film is the films depicted within, the horrible, unintentionally funny student films, especially "The Crap Shoot of Life".