(Albert Brooks, US 1979, 99 min., 35mm)

In this hilarious send-up of documentaries and reality television, director and co-writer Brooks plays an overly ambitious and neurotic filmmaker named (what else?) Albert Brooks. Inspired by PBS’s American Family series, Brooks decides to film the daily family life of a Phoenix, Arizona, veterinarian (played by the hilariously deadpan Charles Grodin). Hampered by not-so-unobtrusive cameras, as well as his inability to sit back and just let “real life” happen, the obnoxious and painfully funny Brooks does all he can to bring about the destruction of his own project. One of the very best and least known of contemporary comedies, its truths are more evident now in our increasingly media-savvy society.