Christopher Guest is a creative spirit who has been able to make some very funny films like 'Best In Show' where his technique of avoiding a script by giving his cast of actors an outline as matrix for a scene, letting them ad lib the idea a couple of times, then accepting the second or third take as the final product - pasting all the bits together in the edit. Sometimes it works: sometimes it flounders. Or to quote a famous advertisement 'Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't'.<br /><br />For this viewer this mocumentary about a very bad film company churning out a very bad film with a rather pitiful cast of actors falling victim to Internet rumors that an Oscar is in the air works as a funny idea and social comment for about the first half four and then sadly falls apart painfully as it proceeds to its wholly predictable end. Guest uses his usual company of actors (Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, etc) and they seem to have a good time making fun of themselves ultimately. Yes, there are funny moments, but the further the movie plods the less funny the moments become and ultimately the result of the 'rumor of greatness' shows us the shallow lives of the sad sack troupe of actors and producers and writers that started out with a pretty awful idea.<br /><br />Guest usually pulls these capers off nicely, but perhaps with such films as 'The Producers' musical on the screens simultaneously the joke is stale. It is a good film to watch as Oscar time is upon us - and there is some pungent jabbing at awards concepts floating through the film. This is a movie for Guest fans, but not a good start for those who don't know his work. Grady Harp