Pittsburgh

3.5/4 stars

A ridiculous film, to watch, to talk about, and to have been made. Pittsburgh is a mockumentary that doesn't acknowledge that it is one in any of the ordinary superficial ways. The characters all have the same names and general life circumstances (so far as we the audience can tell) as the actors who portray them, the film never flinches from its supposed reality. It simply veers so abruptly and completely into the absurd as to make its fictionality obvious.

In a singularly memorable premise, Jeff Goldblum decides to do a stage version of The Music Man so that his Canadian girlfriend can participate and get a green card. This was his second idea. She'll be playing Marian, so of course Goldblum must be Harold Hill, a part which he believes he was born to play. Does it sound ridiculous enough yet? He's no Robert Preston.

Moby and Ed Begley Jr appear in supporting roles as themselves. Each has their own particular quirk (giving them away would ruin the experience) which makes them seem more real at first than their celebrity personas, then gradually removes them from any semblance of reality. Everyone involved in the making of this movie is a great sport, not just for making such a joke of themselves, but for doing so with no wink to the camera whatsoever, no acknowledgement that this comic version of them is fictional.

The genius of this film is the way that it pulls you in to what you believe is a real documentary and then gradually lets you go. Part of the charm of such a premise requires that the film be somewhat obscure, but I do wonder how this film, as absorbing, masterfully executed and hilaruous as it is, hasn't been seen by more people. Have they been in thinking jail?