Home Movies

After films like Carrie, Dressed To Kill, and Body Double, Brian De Palma earned the title of Master Of Suspense. But De Palma actually cut his teeth making comedies like the cult hits Greetings and Hi Mom. Occasionally, he even returns to the comedy genre. Over the next few posts, I'm going to take a look back at some of those forgotten gems. First up is 1980's Home Movies.

Back in the late 70's, De Palma returned to his alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, and taught some film courses. For one of those courses, he came up with the idea to have his students shoot an independent film. The students raised the money, set up the shooting schedule, filming, and editing, all under De Palma's supervision. De Palma even called on some of his former lead actors, Kirk Douglas from The Fury, Gerrit Graham from Phantom Of The Paradise, Keith Gordon from Dressed To Kill, and Nancy Allen, aka Mrs. De Palma, from Carrie, Dressed To Kill, and Blow Out. The end result was Home Movies.

Gordon stars as a Denis Byrd, a teenage outcast with a skirt chasing dad, Vincent Gardenia, an overly dramatic mother, Mary Davenport, and an egomaniacal brother, Graham. When he starts to develop a crush on his brother's girlfriend, Allen, Denis begins to film everything that happens to him, unknowing that a filmmaking teacher of his only known as The Maestro, Douglas, is filming him as well.

For what is basically an experimental film, Home Movies is actually a lot of fun. The cast are good sports. Douglas even helped with some fo the funding.De Palma and his students have created a fun class project. Definately a must for De Palma fans.

Unfortunately it is out of print now.