Home Video Hovel: Real Life, by Rudie Obias

It seems most people would know Albert Brooks as the voice of Marlin in the Pixar film Finding Nemo. However, he voiced the role of a fish, Brooks was an accomplished comedian, actor, and director. Brooks takes comedy to new and strange heights — no matter the format. Either as a Grammy-nominated recording artist, a novelist and screenwriter, an action in motion pictures, or as a TV personality making short films during the early days of Saturday Night Live. In fact, his life and career is the subject of the Rob Reiner documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, which is available to stream on Max, the one to watch for HBO. 

However, the most widespread and detailed comedy comes from his work as a film director with movies, like Modern Romance, Defending Your Life, Mother, and Lost in America. But his 1979 film debut Real Life — which is now a title in the Criterion Collection — really shows off Brooks’ absurdity of wit, deadpan humor, and offbeat characters.

Written and directed by Albert Brooks, Real Life follows, well… ummm… Albert Brooks, or at least a fictionalized version of Albert Brooks, a film producer who wants to capture the “real life” of a typical American family, the Yeager Family — led by Warren, played by Charles Grodin (The Heartbreak Kid, Midnight Run) and Jeannette, played by Frances Lee McCain (Gremlins, Back To The Future). He plans on documenting every aspect of the family’s life with a camera crew made up of cameramen wearing the Ettinauer 226XL, an over-the-head camera system that captures audio and video digitally and in real-life.

Although the Yeager Family really wanted to participate in the project, the family starts to unravel after a few days of filming. Jeannette becomes increasingly annoyed with the camera crew capturing their lives, while Warren sees it as an opportunity for the family. However, because of his misplaced dreams of stardom, he can’t relax and always puts on his best face — even if it tears his family apart.

Brooks takes inspiration for Real Life from the 1973 PBS TV documentary An American Family, which followed the lives of the Loud Family from Santa Barbara, California. The film, in fact, is a spoof or satire of that series, as Brooks wants to make something “real.” But halfway through the project is threatened with termination. And to save the project, Brooks wants to get a big and dramatic ending — just like Gone with the Wind.

In a lot of ways, Real Life was ahead of its time, especially when you consider the wide range of reality TV over the last 25 years. It also envisioned camera technology getting smaller and smaller with loose “run-and-gun” style of digital photography. It even took a look at dramatizing real events and sensationalizing the media. It’s not hard to imagine if the Albert Brooks in Real Life took a nefarious turn, he’d be Lou Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, in Dan Gilroy’s 2014 film Nightcrawler. But not wanting to beat a dead horse, at its core, Real Life has a bit of darkness in it, but maybe not that dark.

As for the release itself, the Criterion Collection edition features a new 4K Ultra HD re-master with a few bonus features, namely an interview with Brooks about his early career and the making of Real Life. The release itself is appreciated as a chance to highlight an underviewed film from one of comedy’s best.