Nick reunites with arty film school classmate Lydia (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and meets her next-door neighbors, an aspiring rock band in search of a director for their music video.

[1] In addition, Martin Short has a significant uncredited role as Neil Sussman, Chapman's agent, appearing multiple times, with plot developments.

The film features numerous, cameo, "Special Appearances": Greenlit by David Puttnam, president of Columbia Pictures, who was ousted two weeks after production began.

The website's consensus reads: "The Big Picture aims at targets that might not be familiar to viewers who aren't well-versed in movie-biz chicanery, but hits most of them so solidly that laughter is the only option.

[4] When the film was first released, Siskel & Ebert gave it a rating of "two thumbs down" on their show At the Movies, with both men criticizing it for its fantasy sequences, cliched plotting, and allegedly unrealistic caricatures of Hollywood insiders.