‘Official Competition ‘: The making of a movie

Above : Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Oscar Martínez star in “Official Competition,” which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. (Photo/IFC Films)

Movies about the making of movies would seem to be too insiderish, too self-aggrandizing to be entertaining.

But in the hands of the right filmmaker, such movies can be fun to watch.

Consider 2011’s “The Artist,” which won a Best Picture Oscar. Or “Singin’ in the Rain,” arguably one of the best musicals ever filmed. Or even “The Disaster Artist,” which if nothing else was a humorous study of how a train-wreck of a movie was produced.

Now we have “Official Competition,” a Spanish-language film that is scheduled to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre – assuming the theater’s ever-shifting schedule doesn’t shift between now and then.

Co-directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, the Spanish-Argentine joint production focuses on the movie being made at the behest of an 80-year-old rich guy (José Luis Gómez) who wants to finance a movie as a means of establishing his legacy.

The guy buys a book written by a renowned author, hires an award-winning director ( Penélope Cruz ) who then works with a pair of actors (Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez) who employ polar-opposite performing styles. And the fireworks begin.

Michael O’Sullivan of the Washington Post describes the film as a “sly satire of cinema that also manages to be a showcase for the comedic chops of its stars.”

Stephanie Zacharek of Time magazine wrote, “All three actors are clearly having a blast with this satire of actorly egos and vanity projects, but it’s Cruz who truly dazzles.”

And Kate Taylor of the Globe and Mail wrote, “One of the many joys of this send-up of filmmaking is that, for all the director’s looniness, she is so often right.”

The Lantern will also open Baz Luhrman’s “Elvis,” which opened a week ago at the area’s mainstream theaters.

I’ll update as the week progresses.