A Christopher Guest primer

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May 3, 2010

Anonymous ---- The Randolph Guide Mon May 03, 2010, 01:17 PM EDT

You may never have heard of Christopher Guest. He is 62 years old, and has been an actor in over 30 movies and many more TV shows.

He’s one of those guys that when you see him, you’d recognize his face. Mr. Guest appears herein as a director, and he has carved out an enviable niche as the absolute tops at making “mockumentaries.”

These are hilarious movies, all done with a totally straight face, that poke fun at various and sundry topics.

To begin with, there is Best In Show (2000), so funny it will leave you gasping and wondering if anyone can ever take dog shows seriously again. The cast is headed by Fred Willard as the TV color man from Hell. Also on hand are Mr. Guest himself, Bob Balaban, Parker Posey and Eugene Levy, all part of the Guest repertory company.

In 2006, Christopher Guest provided For Your Consideration, a very funny take on Oscar mania and the media’s part in it. In this film, the zanies are producing a really bad movie titled Waiting For Purim (in which they are Orthodox Jews home for a holiday). The producer decides to change the whole movie to Waiting for Thanksgiving. The writers no longer recognize their creation, which may be a good thing. It is jaw-dropping bad. But a kid on the Internet says in his blog that one of the actors should be considered for an Oscar and the feeding frenzy is on!

Amateur theatricals take it on the chin in Waiting for Guffman (1996). Mr. Guest is the outlandish Corky St. Clair, hired to produce a musical play about the 150th anniversary of Blaine, Missouri. Of course, it is just incredibly bad and nobody seems to notice. You will! The cast and crew feel sure the play will be snapped up by a Broadway talent scout. Fat chance! The usual suspects: Levy, Posey, Willard, et all, are on hand.

Last but not least (and I hope not really last) is A Mighty Wind (2003), an inspired send-up of the folk music scene. A reunion of lots of formerly famous folk singers is staged. While truly funny also, the music in this film is really quite good!

Mr. Guest’s other directorial efforts fall far short of those four. Exhibit A would be Attack Of The 50-Foot Woman (1993) with Daryl Hannah, exhibiting yet another of her terrible career choices. Miss it if you can.

All of the movies in this column are available on video and DVD. They are for grown-ups simply because kids will not get it.

Rusty Hammond has been writing the Mr. Movie column since 1996. It appears in several newspapers in North Carolina.

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