Waiting For Guffman (1996) Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara.
**** out of ***** stars
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott For more reviews, go to www.nuvo-online.com and click on "film."
Despite being married to Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest still manages to write and perform outstanding pieces of comedy. Frankly, I find this amazing. Were I married to Jamie Lee Curtis, I'd just follow her around the house all day. Getting any work done would be simply out of the question (oh sure, I'm gay, but we're talking about JAMIE LEE CURTIS here, for God's Sake!). But enough about my post-adolescent fantasies. Christopher Guest, one of the creators and stars of the brilliant comedy "This Is Spinal Tap", scores again with "Waiting For Guffman", a very funny bogus documentary about the 150th Anniversary festivities in Blaine, Missouri.
Here's the set-up. The city leaders secure the services of transplanted New Yorker Corky St. Clair (Guest) to stage a musical celebrating Blaine's rich heritage (the town is famous for its wooden stools and a 1946 UFO landing.) Guest is a riot as the effete St. Clair, a delightfully clueless off-off-off Broadway veteran. In Blaine, St. Clair is well-known for his stage production of "Backdraft". To create a more realistic feel, he sent bits of burning newspapers through the heating ducts. Oh sure, the theater caught fire, but the citizens of Blaine appreciate the great effort St. Clair put into his work. They also seem oblivious to the fact that St. Clair is a screaming queen. After all, he's married! Well, nobody has actually ever seen his wife, but they know she's real because St. Clair has often been sighted in the Women's clothing department of local stores, and he knows a great deal about depilatories.
While Guest's performance is the center of "Waiting For Guffman," there are many more pleasures in this affectionate, low-key satire. Check out the expressions on the face of Bob Balaban, a local music teacher displaced as director by St. Clair. Balaban says little about the nightmare he sees being assembled, but he seethes beautifully. Eugene Levy, Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara are also delightful as wanna-be performers who are as enthusiastic as they are untalented. The finished play, "Red, White and Blaine" is a real hoot. It's bad, of course, but it's the kind of bad that's a real pleasure to watch.
Several critics have attacked "Waiting For Guffman" as a smug, elitist slam on small town America. It isn't. "Waiting For Guffman" shows real affection for its characters. Most of the film's cast came from small towns and are all too familiar with the sheer weirdness of community theater. That peculiar mixture of little-to-no talent, combined with delusions of grandeur, is captured in all its glory here. "Guffman" isn't as funny as "This Is Spinal Tap," but few films are. Guest goes for a minor-key approach to humor this time, and succeeds far more often than not. Incidentally, be sure and stay for the film's closing credits, which contain some of the movie's funniest moments.
copyright 1997, Ed Johnson-Ott
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