It's the sly humour you'll notice first. From the movie star slumming it
with Steve Buscemi's indie auteur because he thinks he's 'tight with
Tarantino', to the regulation use of dwarves in dream sequences, this
is a film about film-making with gags to spare. But look a bit deeper and
it's a work of ferocious intelligence. A razor-sharp script - even the
minor characters have well-developed internal lives - first-class
acting, and DiCillo's mastery of film grammar - the use of colour / black
& white, the spot-on sets - all make this an instant classic of the
1990s.
