Modern Romance

This neglected and totally original comedy from co-writer/director/star Albert Brooks was unreleased theatrically in the UK and is consequently not at all well known. Brooks plays a film editor, and the sequences involving the cutting process are insightful and truthful, as he and the excellent Bruno Kirby go to work on a sci-fi flick with the mercilessly hamming George Kennedy as space leader Zeron. The man behind the camera for the schlock movie is played by real-life director James L Brooks, who would later offer Albert (no relation) the role of his career in Broadcast News, and the lovely Kathryn Harrold appears as Brooks's hard-done-by girlfriend. The plot's slight, but the whole is both interesting and enjoyable, especially for movie buffs.