I am becoming a fan of director Christopher Guest. He had made such movies as Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. His movies are away from the norm, or have their own drummer, so to speak.
His films appear to be very low-budget and unique.
Guest takes just about the same actors, almost like a repertoire or a troupe and put them in a different story line from the last and make a movie. The usual gang:
Catherine O’Hara has a 1,000 faces, like Lon Chaney.
Eugene Levvy who sort of keeps his wishy-washy eager-to-please personality in each movie… he is the father with glasses in the American Pie movies.
Bob Balaban is the little short serious looking guy. I think he may have been one of the original cast of The Committee… but maybe not.
Fred Willard, who comes off as an obnoxious person who says what is on his mind in a funny way – his alter ego. He is on The Tonight Show fairly often.
Ed Begley, Jr., who is fairly new to the group, but not new to the movie world. He has been in two of the movies that I know of.
And more!
The movie I recently watched was For Your Consideration, which was about a movie being made and a rumor of a Academy Award spreading around. Before that was The Best in Show which was the innards of a dog show. The others I have seen is Waiting for Guffman, which is backstage rehearsal of an amateur small town play, and A Mighty Wind, which is about the reunion of folk music artists planning for a new concert/comeback.
Christopher Guest’s productions have been called “Mockumentaries”. I think the central theme in all the ones I have seen is Delusions of Grandeur among losers.
O'Hara and Levy used to be in Second City and I loved them both. They could play endless numbers of characters and be believed!
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteO'Hara reminds me in a way of a female Lon Chaney ("Man With a 1000 Faces") - she has played many characters and looked believable.
I agree about C. O'Hara. And I really enjoyed For Your Consideration too. Good movie\
ReplyDeleteCarolyn,
ReplyDeleteYeah!
For Your Consideration was a good movie.
That movie like the others, a lot goes unsaid - or with voices anyway - but you know what is going through a character's mind without a word.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteI love Guest in "This is Spinal Tap." It's a classic!
Bird,
ReplyDeleteI don't think we have seen Spinal Tap. In fact, I didn't know he had a hand in it either. Oh well, at least I can hit my forehead with my hand.
Ed, Tap was a staple of my youth and something that I still love to watch. It is quite adolescent, so be warned...
ReplyDeleteBird,
ReplyDeleteAdolescent huh? Of course I am too sophisticated for that (face turning red, and I am nervously glancing around to see if anybody bought that statement).