Official Competition

An aging billionaire wants a legacy to leave behind - let's build a bridge and name it after him! Better yet, let's make a movie! And in Trump like style, let's get the best people and make the best movie, like ever! That is the premise of "Official Competition," a film which ridicules the wealthy, pretentious and narcissistic actors, and pokes fun at art/artists as a whole. Does that sound fun? Well let me tell you, it is! It stars Penélope Cruz as Lola, the hot "it" director (the best!) hired to make the billionaire's dream come true. Antonio Banderas plays the hunky sex star and Oscar Martínez plays the classically trained actor with whom each is paired against as brothers in conflict in the movie's plot. Lola, who scrapbooks her scripts with taped cigarette butts and other nonsense, puts them through absurd acting exercises - run lines under a giant suspended boulder to induce feelings of stress; Saran-wraps the pair together and destroys their acting awards in front of them for some sort of imagined artistic liberation. It's basically a series of outlandish absurdities, one after the next. I found myself laughing aloud at times. If you enjoy film (said in the most pretentious way possible), you will certainly enjoy this. Catch this movie about the making of a movie in a rep theatre near you.