real life

Director: albert brooks

Actor: dick haynes,albert brooks,matthew tobin,j.a. preston

Data Published: Fri Mar 23 1979

Genres: Comedy

Key Words: horse operation,actor playing himself,mockumentary,fictional reality show,fake documentary

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079781/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Life_(1979_film)

Description: Real Life is a movie starring Dick Haynes, Albert Brooks, and Matthew Tobin. A film crew sets out to record a year in the life of an average family, but things quickly start going wrong.

Plot: A documentary filmmaker (Albert Brooks) enlists a family for a new cinematic and scientific experiment that intends to capture every waking moment of their daily life on film. Out of all the families that are chosen, the ordinary family of the Yeagers of Phoenix, Arizona are chosen. It is a project Brooks confidently announces to a large gathering in the city, even greeting them with a song. Two other doctors are enlisted in order to evaluate the family through the progression of the project. The concept is for the Yeagers and their two children to go about their business at their Phoenix home, work and school as if nothing is different from a typical day, ignoring the fact that men wearing cameras that look like Star Wars helmets are recording every move they make and every word they say. Brooks promises to be as unobtrusive as possible, taking up a separate residence in the neighborhood and promising not to interfere. Little by little, though, the stress of everyday life is complicated by the presence of the film crew. Brooks also becomes the unwitting object of Mrs. Yeager's attentions. Yeager, a veterinarian, becomes grief-stricken when he is filmed accidentally causing a horse's death. A grandparent's death similarly upsets Jeannette. Soon the couple stops talking, becoming, as Brooks puts it, "lifeless" in their every day life. The unscrupulous man from Hollywood is likely to go to any lengths to make his film more interesting, even if it means dressing up as a clown to cheer them up. After a meeting between Brooks and the others, one of the doctors leaves the project, citing how it seems to have lost control. He soon publishes a book that is negative of the project, equating it to a cult. At one point, a film crew from a television station attempts to write a "fluff piece" about the family, but Brooks angrily throws them out of the house. Soon after, the news stations attempt to get coverage of the family, barraging their lives no matter where they go. Not long after, another meeting of Brooks and the people of the institute occurs, revolving around the possibility of ending the project. Brooks attempts to defend keeping the project going by bringing the Yeagers, but the family decides to abandon the project. Despite his pleas for them to stay, they do not change their minds. Soon after, Brooks decides that the only way to keep the project going is to set their house on fire, citing the burning of Atlanta from Gone with the Wind, joyfully exclaiming on how spectacular of an ending this is.