Sognando Broadway

Waiting for Guffman is one of those too-rare motion pictures that actually lives up to the label of "a comedy". Thirty minutes into Waiting for Guffman, my stomach hurt from laughing. Like some of the most brilliant comedies of recent years such as Clerks Waiting for Guffman reminds us of the true meaning of the term "sidesplitting." And, unlike in many of the movies on my "funniest films" list, there's nothing bizarre or twisted about this humor. The laughs dished out by Waiting for Guffman are universally accessible.

"Waiting for Guffman" (1996): THE FINEST assemblage of straight-faced comedians in all of history, create one of THE funniest movies EVER. "Waiting for Guffman" is about humans with more than enough faith...AND self-delusions. Christopher Guest is the driving force, both in front of and behind the camera, and along with Eugene Levy, portray a small town's population creating a small play about their small history, which is a VERY BIG deal to them. Guest's consistent theme (throughout his films) is about humans who don't have enough insight or talent to spot the lack of it within themselves. There is an incredible blind faith, tenderness and embarrassing, misguided drive within these people. And yet, within their little world, they support the dreams for one another, and move through their lives with solid delusion. "This is Spinal Tap", "Best in Show", and "A Mighty Wind" are other great examples. Guest also has the sense to call back his actors for further projects. This is brilliant work.

Face it, between Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman, Christopher Guest leaves no doubt, that he alone ,is the greatest mockumentary film maker of all-time. Which film is better? Good luck with that one. Even though I have seen both of them in the past, I just watched both of them again. And could watch them, both,again. Just wanted to add my two cents.

Upon watching merely a few minutes of this, I realized it reminded me a lot of "Best in Show," and after doing some research, I was rewarded with the fact that I was correct in assuming this, as both films were directed by Christopher Guest (not to mention that almost the entire principal cast was the same as well). In both films, the real-life actors are interviewed as their characters about certain events/occurrences, which makes them feel as if they are documentaries, and not actual films.

Christopher Guest stars as Corky St. Clair, a Broadway musical director who visits the small town of Blaine (Missouri), and makes plans to put together an original musical in the hopes of attracting the attentions of Broadway producers, and landing himself back on the Great White Way. Corky casts some local townspeople in the show (Catherine O'Hara, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey). O'Hara and Willard play a married couple with years of theater experience under their belts, Levy plays the town dentist, and Posey plays a young Dairy Queen employee (both of them are newcomers to the acting scene).

One of the rather subtle jokes in this film, is the mention of Corky's wife. Throughout the film, some of the other actors mention that they have heard he has a wife, but have never met/seen her. This proves to be a solid joke, as Guest portrays Corky as incredibly flamboyant, and the audience is left to wonder whether Corky really even has a wife, or if she is just a product of his imagination.

I enjoyed this one. I am a fan of basically everyone in the cast; they all are funny in their own ways. I would have to say that I am more familiar with Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy than some of the others, simply because I used to watch them on SCTV, and on their newer TV show, "Schitt's Creek." Also, I would like to add that I would pay money to see their original musical; from what I saw, I enjoyed.

Without exaggeration, I can tell you that I've seen this movie at least 30 times. And I always find something new about it. For instance, in Ron & Sheila's audition with their treatment of "Midnight At The Oasis", it took me about 10 viewings til I noticed that Sheila is mouthing the words to Ron because of his problems remembering his lines.

I really don't know where to begin listing my favorite things about this movie - Ron's "medical reason" for his sole trip outside of Blaine, Dr. Pearl's Carson impressions, Sheila's "less-is-more" acting approach, Corky's tantrums ("I hate you, and I hate your ass face!"), Libba Mae's description of her job at Dairy Queen, councilman Steve Stark admiration for Corky ("GOD, I wish I was in the show"), there is not a wasted moment in this film. It's stupid of me to try to list them here.

The extras on the DVD feature a ton of scenes that weren't in the movie. There's some additional Corky items in his memorabilia collection, including towels from "Hamlet On Ice", alternate epilogues for both Ron & Sheila and also Dr. Pearl, a scene of Corky driving around town telling people they made the cast, a nutty scene of Ron's whiffle-ball reenactment of Bill Mazeroski's famous home-run, dinner at Johnny Savage's house, and extra stuff from the musical - "Nothing Ever Happens In Blaine", "This Bulging River" and also a whacked-out White House scene. But the piece de resistance of the deleted scenes is Libby Mae's other audition piece which is so subtly twisted that you just need to see it yourself.

It's debatable whether this movie is outright cruel in making fun of small townsfolk & community theater types. But the more I watch it and get into it, I think that everybody in the movie has a strong amount of affection for their characters. I don't know; you watch it 30 times and tell me what you think.