In his most thorough feat of self-deprecation, Albert Brooks plays himself as a smarmy upstart Hollywood director charged with filming a real-life portrait of an "ordinary" Phoenix family to be financed by the Boulder Institute for Behavioral Science. Taking as its satirical subject the PBS series "An American Family", Real Life's opening text scroll includes an excerpt from a media critic that reads (paraphrasing),"This is a whole new method of anthropological research…as interpreted by the camera." It's the last part, "interpreted by the camera," that clearly interests Brooks. In detailing the crumbling of the family and the director's process of selecting what to shoot and how (it isn't long before he's staging scenes),Brooks shows how the mere presence of the camera shapes a new reality for spectator and subject. Their first dinner under camera (the technicians wear ridiculous astronaut-like helmet devices over the top halves of their bodies) has Charles Grodin trying to present his perfect family, but his stressed-out wife gives a hilariously blunt assessment of her feelings. (Meanwhile, Brooks wonders whether his leading man is coming across as unsympathetic.) The institute's naïve statisticians don't see the folly of their pursuit until Brooks makes the film his blatant vanity project; the comic highpoint is a montage of happy, slow-motion family moments that Brooks narrates ("I'll show the French what a montage really is!"). In this project, all are delusional, from the quixotic scientists who fatuously hired Hollywood talent for a film about reality to the unseen producer who makes money the inappropriate subject of every conversation. And film-making, like all profit-driven endeavors, is subject to self-interest, rendering futile the entire notion of the camera as objective recorder. But try telling that to a Hollywood producer.

Albert Brooks tries so hard in this fake documentary about American family life that you find yourself willing to wade through the movie's many slow moments and gags that just don't succeed. Plus, the movie can be quite funny from time to time. But, in general, I look at this like a fake documentary that was a noble experiment that ultimately failed--but is still worth seeing. After all, if it hadn't been for films like this, maybe they never would have made films like BEST IN SHOW as well as AND GOD SPOKE.

Although the purpose of this documentary is to show American family life in an unobtrusive manner, ultimately, the family becomes like a lot of modern "reality TV" families and the action becomes more and more suggested by the producer, Brooks. And, ultimately, the filming takes on a dramatic impact on the family.

Funny, insightful but far from perfect.

This is the directorial debut of comedian Albert Brooks, best known for voicing Marlin in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, it was rated average by most critics, but it sounded like a really interesting concept, and it was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically Albert Brooks (whose real name is Albert Einstein!) plays a darker version of himself, he has become a documentary filmmaker, his new cinematic and scientific experiment is a film that will capture every waking moment in the everyday life of an American family. Many families are auditioned, they are whittled down to two, until Brooks and his other producers settle on the ordinary Yeager family from Phoenix, Arizona: husband/father Warren Yeager (Charles Grodin),wife/mother Jeanette (Gremlins' Frances Lee McCain),and their children, Lisa (Lisa Urette) and Eric (Robert Stirrat). The concept is for the family to go about their business, at home, at work and at school as if nothing is different, ignoring the fact that men wearing cameras that look like Star Wars helmets are recording every move they make and every word they say. Brooks promises to be as unobtrusive as possible, taking a separate residence in the neighbourhood and not interfering, "for the good of the show". But the presence of the crew causes stress and complications for the family, and Brooks has unwittingly becoming the object of Mrs. Yeager's affections. Yeager is a vegetarian, he is traumatised being filmed when causing the death of a horse, and Jeanette is devastated by the death of a grandparent, tension is put on the leading couple, leading to "lifeless" material. There is a point when Mrs. Yeager is going for a medical examination, but she seems to have no reservations about allowing the film crew to capture it, this is course causes a lot of controversy. Brooks from Hollywood is unscrupulous and will do almost anything to make a more interesting film, including dressing as a clown to cheer them up. Brooks has a meeting with his fellow producers, and the two doctors evaluating the ongoing project, one of whom leaves, sighting that the project has lost control, and soon enough press start hounding the Yeagers. Brooks has a meeting with the institute, who are considering bringing the project to an end, Brooks tries to defend it, reminding them that it is supposed to last for an entire year. But the family also do not wish to be part of it any longer, despite pleas from Brooks, they will not change their minds to abandon the project. Brooks decides the only thing he can do to keep the show going is to set the house on fire, in a Gone with the Water style, joyfully exclaiming that it is a spectacular ending. Also starring Dick Haynes as Councilman Edmund Harris, Matthew Tobin as Dr. Howard Hill, J.A. Preston as Dr. Ted Cleary, Mort Lindsey, Joseph Schaffler as Paul Lowell - Realtor, Phyllis Quinn as Donna Stanley - Gift Shop Owner, James Ritz as Jack from Cincinnati and James L. Brooks as Driving Evaluator. This film is a spoof of the then popular docusoap An American Family, reality TV has now become a staple of television over the years, especially ones about families, e.g. The Osbournes, Wife Swap, Supernanny, The Family and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, so this film is much more relevant today, and it could almost be a premonition to the whole thing. It really does mock what goes on behind the scenes, the destructive influence that happens to the subjects, and the various attempts make an entertaining show, some turning into mishaps, a clever and amusing satirical comedy. Worth watching!