Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

For Your Consideration Blu-ray Movie Review

Home for Thanksgiving.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 27, 2024

Less a traditional mockumentary and more a straight-up satire, Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration gleefully lampoons Hollywood and pop culture but ironically feels a bit less entertaining and enjoyable than his usual output. Co-written with his frequent collaborator Eugene Levy (both of whom also appear in the film), it follows a trio of actors who learn that they're up for possible Oscar nominations for their dramatic fictional film, Home for Purim, despite it not even being finished yet. These three -- Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer), and Callie Webb (Parker Posey) -- deal with the possibility of prestige and notoriety in different yet fairly similar ways, changing their appearances and attitudes dramatically with the encouragement of their friends and handlers.

The patchwork flow of this film has occasional stabs at greatness, and it at least builds to an admittedly decent climax when Home for Purim gradually becomes a shell of its former self, even going through a studio-mandated name change to reference Turkey Day as seen above. This coincides with the changes seen and felt by all three main characters, as appearances on various buzzworthy shows, press junkets, and interview sessions give For Your Consideration a very in-the-moment feeling that unfortunately, due to the way it plays out, doesn't feel quite as lasting as expected. Much like One Hour Photo, there are timeless sentiments expressed here but the format no longer feels relevant.

In whatever sense that For Your Consideration seems slightly dated in comparison with Guest's other films from that era, including Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, this occasionally sharp satire at least brings its A-game as far as the cast and their ambitions are concerned. This is basically a stacked ensemble and includes lots of familiar faces such as Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, Fred Willard, Larry Miller, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Ed Begley Jr., Ricky Gervais, Paul Dooley, John Krasinski, and Sandra Oh, whether they enjoy a prominent supporting role or just a brief cameo. The roster doesn't lead to a game of "spot the familiar face" as much as expected, given the way that For Your Consideration organically introduces its characters as part of the entertainment sphere, yet its featherweight plot nonetheless turns the end result into more of an episodic affair rather than a fully-formed one.

Elsewhere, the cheapness of certain aspects of For Your Consideration's production design -- show logos, on-screen graphics, etc. -- just aren't all that convincing to a borderline distracting degree... but I'm a stickler for this stuff, so your mileage may vary. The same goes for at least one of the main characters' transformations; O'Hara plays her part perfectly with an appropriate mix of desperation and pathos, but Harry Shearer's devolution -- while meant to be over-the-top ridiculous -- just ends up landing with a thud. (His appearance on a fictional hip-hip show called Chllaxin' is easily the worst attempt at replicating black culture until Porky Pig's rap in Space Jam: A New Legacy.)

Despite the mixed-bag value of its main feature, more ardent followers of Christopher Guest's work may disagree and find it to be closer in quality to his other work. They'll certainly love Warner Archive's belated but welcome new Blu-ray; it offers very good A/V merits that run circles around their parent company's DVD, which was unfortunately released less than a year after Blu-ray's launch and probably not considered an optimal HD prospect at that time.

For Your Consideration Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The purposely grainy appearance of For Your Consideration comes through very well on Warner Archive's new 1080p transfer, easily outpacing their parent company's DVD from nearly two decades ago; whereas that release crumbled under the pressure of filmic texture and was riddled with video noise, this looks like a million bucks. Image detail is fantastic in close-ups and wide shots alike, color representation is superb, black levels run as deep as needed, and the picture as a whole is exceedingly clean with only trace levels of dirt and debris remaining. Those I can largely forgive for their infrequent appearance, with my only remain nitpick being that some of the brightest whites run a little hot. (It's also odd that the film appears to presented open-matte 1.78:1 while the DVD was 1.85:1, but this doesn't bother me given the subject matter.) That said, this is a solid presentation, one that's been encoded very well and shows no flagrant signs of compression problems along the way. Needles to say, die-hard fans are going to love it.

For Your Consideration Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix follows suit with a straightforward but faithful presentation of this mostly front-loaded presentation. Dialogue is obviously the star of the show here, and it occasionally drifts a bit left and right if the situation warrants it, and occasionally very lightly reaches the rears in more crowded situations which also applies to generation ambience. The lack of a traditional score -- aside for cues that arrive during the "movie within a movie" -- obviously doesn't give the film an overwhelming amount of sonic flavor, but occasional bursts of activity liven things up a little. Essentially, this is a "gets the job done" track and nothing more, so take that decent 4/5 with a grain of salt: this is an intentionally basic mix, but there isn't all that much room for improvement either.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the film only, not the bonus features listed below.

For Your Consideration Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork and three DVD-era extras.

• Audio Commentary - This familiar feature-length track with co-writers Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy is a decent one, mainly due to the pair's comfort and familiarity after working with each other for so many years. Familiar behind-the-scenes areas are covered including story development, casting, locations, the original score, collaborative writing, and more, as well as plenty of shout-outs and cameos along the way. It's not exactly overloaded with information, but still entertaining for obvious reasons and thus worth a listen.

• Over 30 Minutes of Hilarious Bonus Material (38:52) - Yes, that's how it's advertised, but really this is just a decent to good collection of deleted scenes and outtakes presented in upscaled standard-def 4:3 format.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:23) - Likewise presented in upscaled 4:3 format and also available here.

For Your Consideration Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration tackled the director's broadest subject yet: Hollywood, and of course the pop culture that surrounds it. The tone feels more like straight satire than a mockumentary with three main characters whose Oscar-baited devolution creates a familiar blend of absurdity and sadness after reality hits. It has its moments but falls short of Guest's previous work, with so-so production design and an episodic flow that doesn't consistently fire on all cylinders, and actually feels fairly dated now less than 20 years later. Even so, die-hard fans will love Warner Archive's new Blu-ray, which easily outpaces their parent company's old DVD with rock-solid A/V merits and a trio of legacy bonus features. It's recommended to the right crowd, but newcomers should try before they buy.