Lastly is a wife who has recently gone through extensive facial reconstruction surgery and whose stay-at-home older son greets guests with a serenade of death metal with his portable guitar and amp. When her plastic surgeon stops for a house call, he becomes obsessed with getting his recently finished screenplay to his patient’s producer husband.
Many have attempted to recreate the mockumentary perfected by Chris Guests, Eugene Levy, and crew. Most of the time, the copycats just sit in front of a camera for a talking head interview and say whatever stupid s**t comes to their mind. Then, they go off on some unrealistic adventure as cameras follow them to some impossible, overacted moment.
Filmmakers Ryan McGlade and Molly Wurwand seem to have cracked the code for creating a mockumentary while making it their own. They first find a balance between absurdity and reality. For our first wife, they ask what would the dynamic between a twenty-something wife and her 100-year-old husband look like. How does she tend to his needs? How does she live a life of love and luxury? The film’s comedy comes from finding the truth in these situations and then uncovering small comedic moments in the process.
“…McGlade and Wurwand seem to have cracked the code for creating a mockumentary while making it their own.”
The next thing McGlade and Wurwand do is give us a reason to like and find affection for each character. My Imaginary Life for Someone refuses to portray its subjects as the stereotypical golddigger or nasty Bravo TV rich bitch. That nugget of likability only amplifies the comedy. For example, the wife who built the Infinity home is that proud wife who has been given a large checkbook to create the home of her dreams. Meanwhile, her video tour is intercut with crime scene footage of each room…without explanation.
Lastly, the performances are the charm of My Imaginary Life. Each character is well-defined, and we learn about their personalities through the situations they are placed in versus some inane, rambling monologues, as seen in lesser comedies. The performances lean more toward absurd and subtle, with thankfully no overblown comedic blowup of wackiness. The editing is brilliant as well. I imagine that in mockumentaries, there is way too much footage to choose from. The filmmaker shows remarkable restraint in including only footage that serves to tell the story.
If you plan on doing a mockumentary of your own, watch My Imaginary Life for Someone and take notes. My Imaginary Life For Someone is not a joke-fest like the majority of its mockumentary predecessors; it is a brilliant satire on the lives of rich housewives from the 90s and early 00s that mushroomed during the boom of reality television. I’m not saying you should make your comedy like this one, but consider it a foundation to build upon with your style of comedy. In fact, comedy is the most challenging genre for independent filmmakers to pull off. My Imaginary Life For Someone navigates the genre masterfully while showing great restraint to hilarious results.
My Imaginary Life For Someone screened at the 2024 Film Maudit 2.0 Festival in Los Angeles, CA.
"…If you're planning on doing a mockumentary of your own, watch My Imaginary Life for Someone and take notes."
