Los Angeles City Hall

“Los Angeles Plays Itself”, the Thom Anderson’s 2003 documentary, is about how Los Angeles has been portrayed in the movies. He rails against Hollywood and how it has maligned the city’s architecture, falsified its history and papered over its faults. His love for his city is self-evident, as is his disdain for those who would denigrate it, which he extends to those who use the nickname LA. The film’s first-person narration (Encke King) is both hypnotically monotone and unrelentingly critical. But even at almost three hours, this film is never boring, because it is so well populated with clips from over 200 other movies. Meticulous care has been taken to choose movie scenes, both famous and obscure that beautifully illustrate Mr. Anderson’s many points. It is because of this liberal sampling that “Los Angeles Plays Itself” has languished in art-house obscurity for more than a decade. Until recently, the movie was never in very wide distribution. Anderson, a CalArts professor, was unwilling to risk suit for copyright infringement. He was eventually convinced that he was actually protected under the fair use clause of the very copyright law that he had feared. The film is now available for streaming on Netflix. As a recent visitor of the city and a long time movie buff, I found this documentary very entertaining.