My Big Night

An audaciously inventive ensemble comedy brimming with showbiz satire, the latest from Spain’s madcap maestro Álex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus / Witching & Bitching) is a hoot. MY BIG NIGHT offers an all-access backstage pass to a TV variety show so full of hitches and snags its participants will be lucky if they survive the taping.

It’s only October, but the network’s annual black-tie New Year’s Eve spectacular has already been in production for a gruelling week and a half, and setbacks continue to accumulate. A falling crane has just taken out an extra, and the show’s hosts are at each other’s throats. Oversexed pop sensation Adán discovers he’s been duped by a semen thief, while legendary divo Alphonso (the iconic real-life singer Raphael) is stalked by an armed and unstable would-be songwriter who’s disgruntled after years of rejection. Amongst the extras, dumpy but endearing José is really hitting it off with the gorgeous Paloma , but she has a history of accidentally maiming every man she meets. Meanwhile, just outside the studio, riot police move in as demonstrators demand the arrest of the show’s corrupt producer.

MY BIG NIGHT is perfectly calibrated comedy; a frenetic brew of Fellini, Altman and Almodóvar, rife with bon mots and wicked farce, bizarre grotesques and charismatic eccentrics and building steadily toward a finale that’s a grand collapse into utter chaos.