Cubussoli
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Kailansorac
Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Helllins
It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
scifichickmuses
As a retired High School Theatre teacher I wish I had this documentary to share with my students when I was still teaching. I always tried to explain to my students that only 1% of want to be actors will become "Brad Pitt" famous. Most actors are just "working" actors. Some actors will become character actors and make a really nice living. But, this documentary focuses in on the "Extras" and gives a really great glimpse into the lives of the people who make up the crowd scenes in the movies and TV show everyday. It is a little long, it could have been about half an hour shorter but overall, it's very informative, very touching, and very eye opening. I highly recommend this documentary.
oscar-35
*Spoiler/plot- Strictly Background, 2007, This documentary film follows the work, lives and dreams of ten performers that work as background performers in TV and films.*Special Stars- Terry Bolo, Geoffrey Gould, Cecilia Hartfield, Louis MCCarten, Jay Michaels, Car Michaels, *Tafan Nieves, Mark Nobel, John Richards, Marvin Rouillard.*Theme- Living your dream is sometimes a bad nightmare if no reality is in your life.*Trivia/location/goofs- Shot in Los Angeles, documentary, Won 6 film festival awards. Several real 'extras' agencies are featured.*Emotion- A particularly interesting film about another strange aspect of Hollywood for it's citizenry. The film starts off very up-beat and normal. Then it descends into some of the strangest, negative, and troubling revelations about the background performers private lives, previous jobs, and their life's hang-ups. This film is honest, raw, and maybe carefully contrived, so a certain amount of viewer's cynicism and apprehension makes this an effective film to connect with its audience's emotions. This film makes you uncomfortable, but somehow wanting more about the film''s performers.
MartinHafer
This is one of the stranger documentaries I've seen in some time and I was surprised that the film actually hooked me and kept my interest. It's all about ten folks who are professional extras--and from what I was able to gather, that is their only job! Now considering how little it pays, it kept me wondering how they could afford to do this. Did they have spouses who supported them? Were they living off inheritances? I could see that in a few cases, they seemed to be living rather marginal lives.The film consists of lots of interviews and film clips with these people. As for the film clips, I really liked what the film makers did--turn the prints black & white and then colorize the featured extra so you can recognize them. Some of the interviews seemed very mundeane, some were moving and some made me laugh (such as the guy who seemed REALLY worried about doing gay roles).A few other interesting things to look for: the Asian-American guy who ends up getting chosen to play, of all people, Abe Lincoln! the big guy's room--you'd think that he'd clean it before the film crew arrived....at least I HOPE he hadn't cleaned it first! The film is, at times, rather sad and moving. Several of the people seemed to lead very marginal existences and it's easy to worry about them and their futures. These are odd folks, but the film does make you care about them.
Jeff Beachnau
I saw this at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan.Interesting documentary about people that make a career out of being movie extras. It followed ten people around and showed how they handle being another face in the movie crowd. I really enjoyed this film because I'm interested in going into the film business and it would be fun to be an extra in at least one film.It was great seeing how dedicated some of these people are. The documentary covered many of the basics about being an extra. How to get cast in a film, how to dress, how to act around the big stars, and many other things. I also loved how they showed the film clips and pointed out where the stars of the documentary were.This movie will be really helpful to anyone that wants to travel out west and go into the movies.
