Waiting for Guffman

Rating:
Summary: OFF-OFF BROADWAY
Review: Christopher Guest lampoons community theatre in a hit and miss comedy that is strangely loyal to the theatrics and commitment of the community theatre. One would expect a comedy of errors climaxing to a calamitous opening night but the problems here are mundane, like an actor copping out at the last minute, and the final show itself, is rather flawless and entertaining. So, all in all, it seems a bit pointless (like community theatre?). The "Waiting for Godot" reference, is never really explored, and the whole film seems bent on either being sarcastic or serene, wavering between the two with no real destination in mind. The jokes often fall very flat (drum roll, please), but it can also be brilliantly funny, like the Director's plea to a town board meeting for more funds for the theatre (he seriously asks for $500,000!).I haven't seen other Guest vehicles like, "Best In Show", and "A Mighty Wind", but I suspect they, like this, non-chalantly poke fun at the given fields of dog shows and folk music with wry humor and sly observations that finally come across to me as haughty and aloof. A friend in community theatre recommended this film to me and I can attest, we are much more funny and much more pathetic, than what is depicted here.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting For Laughter
Review: After viewing Christopher Guest's superb mockumentary "Best In Show" this film was a major disappointment. The laughs in "Waiting for Guffman" were sporadic and obvious. Guest's Corky St. Claire character's flamboyance was a little much. The depiction of Middle America was condescending if not outright insulting. The normally reliable ensemble cast(Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Fred Willard, Parker Posey) could not even transcend the weak material they were given to work with. The centerpiece of the film, a community theatre production commemmorating the history of the fictional town of Blaine, was flat and boring and not even remotely funny. I'm grateful that a talent like Guest rebounded from this misfire in his directorial debut to do better work.

Rating:
Summary: one of my Top Films of All Time!
Review: For those of you not familiar with the wildly funny, talented, original and witty Christopher Guest, this film is a magnificent introduction to his talent as a comedian, writer, director and entertainer. It is hard to believe, at some times, that this film was largely improvisational, and the only elements premeditated were the musical score and the general structure of the plot.

Corky St. Claire (Christopher Guest) is a former Hollywood stage director and "artiste" who decides to work his magic on the people of the fictional small town of Blaine, Missouri. The sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of the town is upon them, and they want to put on a big staged number at the school music theatre. Together with the local Dairy Queen Clerk (Parker Posey), the School Conductor and Musical Director (Michael McKeon), a husband-wife travel agent pair (Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard), the local dentist with Yiddish theatre in his blood (Eugene Levy), and the local bad boy (Matthew Keeslar), Corky must wave his magic wand, pump up the star dust and get the crew pumped up to perform.

This film emulates itself in the style of numerous preceding docudramas about performance theatre. The difference is this film is non-stop, tongue-in-cheek, outrageously and irreverantly hilarious, whereas some of the "real" documentaries wear thin. This was the first in a series of three mockumentaries that Christopher Guest and his groups of regulars presented to us, the unsuspecting audience. The two other films in this trilogy are: "Best of Show" and "A Mighty Wind." This film is delightfully off-the-wall, unapologetically in your face and really, really entertaining. They say that every time you laugh sincerely you burn 5 calories. With a film like "Waiting For Guffman," there is no telling how many hundreds of calories you could be burning! Check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Very, very funny
Review: Christopher Guest knows how to elicit humor from situations most people never touch - a small town musical, a dog show, a folk music show. It is a tribute to his talent and his collaborators that he is somehow able to make us laugh - and sometimes laugh at ourselves - how seriously we take ourselves, for example.