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| Waiting For Guffman |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 84 M |
| Public Rating: 8.70 (20 votes) |
Director: Christopher Guest |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy/Mockumentary |
Year: 1996 |
| Writer(s): Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy |
| Distributor: 1 |
| Reviewed by: Aaron Graham |
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Directed/Written by Christopher Guest (the just released Best In Show)
Christopher Guest....Corky St. Clair
Fred Willard.... Ron Albertson
Catherine O'Hara.... Sheila Albertson
Parker Posey .... Libby Mae Brown
Lewis Arquette .... Clifford Wooley
Matt Keeslar .... Johnny Savage
Eugene Levy .... Dr. Allan Pearl
Bob Balaban .... Lloyd Miller
Like most film nuts, I am a huge fan of This Is Spinal Tap and the small yet fruitful genre of the pseudo-documentary. A genre which pokes fun at a particular subject through the use of phony documentary. Woody Allen's Zelig is a perfect example of this. So when I rented Waiting For Guffman, I expected a lot from the co-writer of Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest. (He just came out with a new film called Best In Show, another work in this genre which pokes fun at the world of dog shows, this was not released nationally so I rented this instead). I was both pleased and disappointed with the film, I'll give some reasons why.
The movie starts off with interviews of various small town folk of Blaine, Missouri. Every year the town puts on a play to celebrate its history. This year Corky St. Clair (Guest) has moved to town and is going to put on the show with Lloyd Miller (Bob Balaban). They have auditions (the one that stands out in my mind is one middle aged guy doing his take on a Raging Bull scene) and the cast is assembled:
--Ron and Sheila Albertson (the wonderful Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara), they have dreams of being big stars in Hollywood.
--Libby Mae Brown (indie girl Parker Posey), a Dairy Queen (or as she frequently refers to it "the DQ") worker who has ice cream on the brain. She is cast after doing a rousing edition of the song "Teacher's Pet".
--Dr. Allan Pearl (co-writer Eugene Levy), a dentist with dreams of being a great comedian.
--Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar), who is cast because Corky St. Clair (a raging homosexual who says that he has a wife, Candy, but nobody seems to see her) has a crush for him.
The cast all get high hopes when a New York Broadway critic (Guffman) writes to Corky and tells him that he will be in the audience to cover the play. The only problem is that the play is terrible and the cast is even worse! Corky ( a veteran play director who lists Barefoot In The Park and a stage edition of the film BackDraft to his credit!) holds everything together and you can see the hopes everyone has of making it to Broadway. Some very funny, witty bits but it doesnt add up to much as the Broadway critic doesnt show and problem after problem arises (like Johnny Savage not showing up so Corky takes his place). Many bits are just plain tired (like the ultra-feminine guy is really overdone!).
There are also funny cameos by Brian Doyle-Murray, Paul Dooley, Paul Benedict, Larry Miller and Lewis Arquette. All names that you surely wont recognize but if you saw their faces you would. My favorite scene happened to be during the credits, Corky gives a tour of his new Hollywood memorabilia store complete with Remains Of The Day lunchboxes, and action figures of the brat pack!
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