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It's hard to believe it's been twenty years since this came out. Kevin Bacon is established as one of the best American actors (also, one of the greats who've never been nominated for an Oscar!). Teri Hatcher is the star of a huge television hit. Christopher Guest still makes brilliant films and gives his actors more freedom than almost any other director today. And my affection for "The Big Picture" only grows fonder as the time passes.

In "Rolling Stone" magazine's 1989 "Hot Issue", then newcomer Steven Soderbergh was profiled as that season's hot new filmmaker. One remark was about how students in LA based film schools have their works shown at big events, attended by many hot shots in the entertainment industry. Meaning, a young woman or man could have a "bomb" of sorts on their hands before even turning professional! Not the most nurturing environment for youthful talent.

Bacon's "Nick Chapman" gets the full treatment as a guy on the fast track after winning his school's big prize for his project. And things don't go wonderfully well after he starts meeting the movers and shakers in his new world. The late, great J.T. Walsh is a studio head (for the time being) who seduces Chapman into believing all his dreams are possible. Michael McKean is Chapman's friend, a cinematographer who isn't necessarily the first choice to shoot his debut. And John Cleese, Martin Short and Jennifer Jason Leigh have great turns as Chapman's different associates that can't really stop the grimly funny runaway train he's on until his self respect finally returns and he sees everything for what it really is.

Most films about film-making are not that good. This is a major exception to that rule. Very bitter, but also very sweet. Just like life!

Film student Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) is nominated for an award at the National Film Institute. He's competing against the wacky Lydia Johnson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and spoiled arrogant Jonathan Tristan-Bennet (Dan Schneider). After his win, he has big dreams but Hollywood is more than his naive expectations. There's studio head Allen Habel (J.T. Walsh), his wife Polo Habel (Fran Drescher), and his mistress Gretchen (Teri Hatcher). Allen starts changing Nick's movie. He's infatuated with Gretchen. He dumps his girlfriend Susan Rawlings and old friends like Emmet Sumner (Michael McKean).

Martin Short's bad hair really threw me off for a second. It suggests a broader, sillier comedy than I expected. Luckily, it doesn't go that way but this is not at the later Christopher Guest level. It takes all the standard Hollywood behind the scenes and puts it on the screen. It's quirky but no big laughs. It hits the nails on the head. Nick is not much in terms of rooting interest. This is early in the inside Hollywood satires. It could be darker. The girlfriend role needs a better actress. The most compelling character is actually Lydia who reconnects with the movie for a short while in the last third. The movie gets a lot better with her energy. It would help if his movie idea doesn't look so utterly self-congratulatory art-house. Overall, this is a nice lesser known Christopher Guest film.

After a film student from Ohio (Bacon) wins an award for his short movie at the film institute in Los Angeles, he has to carefully traverse the minefield of the system to get his artistic vision made. JT Walsh plays a manipulative producer and Martin Short a dubious agent.

"The Big Picture" (1989) is an amusing look at the moviemaking process in Hollywood. The humor is mostly droll or quirky and viewers not up on the business might not relate to some of it, which could explain why the flick flopped at the box office. I wouldn't want to blow time & money on seeing it at the theater, but it works well enough for home viewing on a quiet night or whatever.

Winsome Emily Longstreth stands out on the feminine front as the protagonist's girlfriend, Susan. She was a minor female sensation at the time who worked with the likes of Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Rob Morrow, Molly Ringwald and James Spader, but she left acting entirely by the early 90s, reportedly falling into substance abuse, mental illness, and living in homeless shelters. It's rumored she died in early 2015, but factual info is hard to find so I can't verify this.

Teri Hatcher is notable as wannabe starlet Gretchen; it was her movie debut. Meanwhile Jennifer Jason Leigh is on hand as hipster Lydia while Fran Drescher shows up as the producer's wife, Polo.

The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in the Los Angeles area.

GRADE: B-

This is a good film that is totally stolen by Martin Short. The scenes including his agent character are some of the funniest I've ever seen in a movie. He's absolutely brilliant.

If you can see past the blinding light of Short's performance, there's a likable movie here. Kevin Bacon and his character's storyline are compelling and involving. There are loads of funny cameo-type roles. There's one scene in particular that stands out. It's not funny, it's heartbreaking. I'm talking about the scene where Kevin Bacon picks up Michael McKean in his Porsche, gets a cell phone call, and asks McKean to step out of the car to take the call. Man, that's harsh. It's testament to Bacon's acting charm that his character can be redeemed at all after a stunt like that.

The one thing that seemed consistently not to work here is the fantasy sequences. The movie would play better without them.

THE BIG PICTURE is a breezy satire of the movie business from the mind of writer/director Christopher Guest (BEST IN SHOW, A MIGHTY WIND). It tells the story of Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon), a young film director who gets put through the Hollywood wringer. Studio executives, agents, and starlets all prey on Nick's naivete and he eventually sells out, neglecting his girlfriend and best friend in the process.

What's interesting about THE BIG PICTURE is its grassroots portrayal of how Nick finally launches his Hollywood career - by starting small, doing his own thing, and involving his friends. Those are basically the tenets of independent film, which boomed in the decade following THE BIG PICTURE.

Nowadays, many of those indie directors - among them Steven Soderbergh, Robert Rodriguez, and Christopher Nolan - are getting hired to do big-budget studio pictures. In fact, Soderbergh's "sex, lies, and videotape" was released the same year as this movie.

Was Nick Chapman's "Pez People" video responsible for the indie film movement? Not likely, but THE BIG PICTURE was certainly an advocate of its principles.