August 'Nick's Pix:' DEFENDING YOUR LIFE & Book Signing

It’s that time again. Another month means another 'Nick’s Pix' Screening at the beautiful Lake Theater in Oak Park, and this one is particularly special because I’ll be presenting a movie that I truly, deeply love. It is one my favorite comedies of all time, written, directed by, and starring one of my genuine comedic heroes.

On Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00 p.m., we’ll be screening Albert Brooks’ wonderful 1991 romantic comedy-fantasy Defending Your Life in a beautiful 4K restoration. I’ll introduce the movie, we’ll watch it together on the big screen, and afterward we’ll have a Q&A, do some movie trivia, give away prizes, and talk about one of the smartest, funniest, most charming, and most surprisingly moving comedies ever made.

And yes, it will also be another book-signing event for my book, 40 Years, 40 Films.

Albert Brooks is one of the greatest comedic minds in the history of movies. He has only directed seven feature films, but every one of them is worth seeing, and several are absolute masterpieces.

He predicted reality television years before it existed with Real Life. He dissected romance with painful honesty in Modern Romance. Then he made Lost in America, which I still believe is one of the greatest American comedies ever made.

After Lost in America came Defending Your Life, another perfect Albert Brooks comedy and perhaps his warmest, sweetest, and most emotionally satisfying film.

Brooks plays Daniel Miller, an advertising executive who dies unexpectedly and wakes up in Judgment City, a fascinating weigh station between life and whatever comes next. There, his life is put on trial, not to determine whether he was good or bad, but whether he conquered the fears that held him back while he was alive. If he did, he moves on to the next phase of existence. If he didn’t, it’s back to Earth for another try.

While Daniel is defending his life, he meets Julia, played by Meryl Streep, and falls in love with her. What begins as a wildly inventive fantasy gradually becomes one of the sweetest, smartest, funniest, and most emotionally satisfying romantic comedies ever made.

I have to say something here that might be considered controversial: this is my favorite Meryl Streep performance.

I know. Meryl Streep has given some of the greatest performances in movie history, but she has never been more charming than she is in Defending Your Life. She is warm, witty, playful, romantic, completely natural, and genuinely hilarious.

The chemistry between Streep and Brooks is beautiful. You immediately believe that these two people enjoy being together, and their relationship never feels forced or manufactured. It grows naturally through conversations, meals, shared experiences, and the simple pleasure of discovering another person who makes you feel less alone.

I am generally not a big fan of romantic comedies. Most of them are dreadful. They’re predictable, artificial, and usually built around characters who could solve every problem by simply having one honest conversation. Defending Your Life is different.

This is a romantic comedy with ideas. It has something real to say about fear, regret, self-examination, emotional courage, and the way we allow anxiety to determine the course of our lives. It’s also incredibly funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNzRa79zeo

You will laugh consistently throughout the movie, but you may also find yourself thinking about your own life, your own choices, and the moments when fear prevented you from doing something that might have made you happy.

The concept of Judgment City is brilliantly realized. It feels like an actual place with its own rules, hotels, restaurants, transportation systems, and strange attractions. The food is supposedly the best food anyone has ever tasted, you can eat as much as you want, and there are no calories. That alone makes the afterlife seem pretty appealing.

There’s also the Pavilion of Past Lives, hosted by a holographic Shirley MacLaine, which is one of the movie’s funniest and most perfectly cast jokes.

The supporting cast is extraordinary. Lee Grant is terrific as the prosecutor determined to send Daniel back to Earth. Buck Henry is wonderful in a small but memorable role. But Rip Torn nearly steals the entire movie as Daniel’s defense attorney, Bob Diamond.

Torn was always a terrific dramatic actor, but he was also a truly gifted comedic performer. Most people remember how funny he could be from The Larry Sanders Show, and he also brought his fearless lunacy to movies like Freddy Got Fingered. But this may be the best supporting comedy performance he ever gave.

Albert Brooks worked on the idea for more than two years because he wanted to imagine an afterlife that wasn’t built around religion, clouds, angels, or traditional images of Heaven. Instead, he created a world in which the most important question is whether you allowed fear to control your existence. That is what makes the movie last.

The fantasy is clever. The jokes are wonderful. The romance is lovely. But underneath all of it is a profound and universal idea: Did you really live your life, or did you spend most of it being afraid?

Brooks has said that over the years he received thousands of letters from people who were dying or had loved ones who were dying, and that the movie made them feel better. I understand why. Defending Your Life imagines death not as something terrifying, but as another opportunity to understand yourself. It offers the possibility that our failures are not final, that we continue learning, and that courage is something we may still discover when it matters most.

Albert Brooks has been one of my comedy heroes for most of my life. I loved his revolutionary stand-up appearances on television variety shows in the late 1960s and 1970s, and I loved the short films he made during the first season of Saturday Night Live. Those films were strange, inventive, influential, and a major part of what made that first season feel so new and unpredictable.

He was a groundbreaking stand-up comedian who became a brilliant writer, director, actor, and filmmaker. His movies are funny because they understand human weakness. He specializes in characters who are intelligent enough to recognize their problems but not quite emotionally equipped to solve them.

Daniel Miller is one of those classic Albert Brooks characters. He is neurotic, defensive, self-conscious, terrified of humiliation, and capable of turning every decision into an exhausting internal debate. Yet the movie never treats him with cruelty. Brooks understands him, and because he understands him, we do too.

Defending Your Life received excellent reviews when it was released in 1991, but it was not a major box-office success. Like many Albert Brooks films, however, it found its audience over time. People discovered it on cable, television, and home video, and it gradually became one of those movies that inspires fierce devotion from the people who love it.

I’ve seen it more times than I can count, and I cannot wait to experience it again with an audience.

If you have never seen Defending Your Life, prepare yourself for something truly special. It is charming, imaginative, romantic, thoughtful, utterly hilarious, and surprisingly moving. It is one of those rare movies that can make you laugh, make you think, and leave you feeling genuinely better about life...and maybe even about death.

So here’s the deal.

Join me:

• Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00 p.m.

• The Lake Theater in Oak Park

• Special 4K restoration screening of Albert Brooks’ masterpiece Defending Your Life

• Tickets are just $9 for adults and $7 for seniors

• Reserve your seats now at classiccinemas.com/nick.

I’ll be there to introduce the movie, and then we’ll watch it together on the big screen.

Afterward, I’ll come back out for a Q&A and an interactive discussion about the film. We’ll do some trivia, give away T-shirts and other prizes, and spend the evening celebrating one of the greatest comedies ever made.

The event will also be a book signing for my book, 40 Years, 40 Films, published by Eckhartz Press.

The book is an autobiographical journey through my forty years as a film critic. I write about my favorite movie from every year beginning in 1985, along with my annual Top 10 lists and discussions of more than 400 films that have shaped my life, my career, and my love of cinema.

I’m incredibly proud of the book, and I’ll be selling and signing copies before and after the screening. Come pick one up, and I’ll be happy to personalize it for you. We’ll take pictures, talk about movies, and have a great time.

Come see a great movie. Come laugh with a theater full of people. Come talk about Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, fear, courage, romance, the afterlife, and whether any of us would survive our own Judgment City trial.

And maybe pick up a signed copy of 40 Years, 40 Films while you’re there.

It all happens Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Lake Theater in Oak Park.

I cannot wait to see you there.

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