Strictly Background

2007 documentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A look at ten professional film extras.

An oft-amusing and at time surprising poignant look at the lives of these folk. Some of them are completely delusional as you might expect, but you can't really accuse the director of going out of his way to find the real nutcases. Most of them are realistic and just have an enthusiasm for this kind of work, a love of being on the set, and an excitement with getting to see themselves, even briefly, on the silver screen. With a documentary like this, one where you get a glimpse at the lives of eccentric people, you always want to judge it on how fair it is to the subjects. There are times when this seems like it might be poking fun a bit. That's fine with me because I really like making fun of people anyway. I really enjoyed seeing these people in their movies, the footage changed to completely black and white except for the extra. Some of these cats were even featured pretty prominently, like the guy who was semi-nude in The Shawshank Redemption or the other guy who even looked like he got to act a bit in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Then again, you also had the poor woman who kept talking about movies in which she had appeared where the clips would only show the top of her head or a shoulder or something.

My favorite bit: A guy outside of the Ricardo Montalban theater calling it the "Tattleban Theater" and then saying, "I might not be saying that right."