Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Konterr Brilliant and touching

SnoopyStyle It's the sesquicentennial celebration for the small town of Blaine, Missouri. Former New Yorker Corky St.Clair (Christopher Guest) is putting on an amateur theater production of the town history using the wacky locals as the cast. Then Corky tells them about a Broadway theater critic Mort Guffman who is coming to see the opening of the show and jumps to the possibility of the show going to Broadway. Everybody starts dreaming big.After Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest finally produce something just as funny in the improvisational genre. He has gathered around him an overwhelming comedic cast. The town folks are all horrible actors but I fall for them because they are just so sincere. There is a lovable charm about them. It's not about big slapstick gags. They do get some big laughs although different people will laugh at different things. It's about the actors finding humor in their characters' humanity and oddity.

grantss "You know, there's an old saying in Missouri that if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. In Blain, I honestly believe, with hard work, we can get that down to three or four minutes."Hilarious, moving, sweet, quaint, great. Christopher Guest, one of the creative geniuses behind This is Spinal Tap, now turns his attention to small town America, and the result is brilliant. Original plot, incredibly funny understated dialogue, amusing perfect- for-the-movie music. Starts as a spoof of small town America and ends as a moving examination of small town innocence, hidden talent, values and goodness.Casting is perfect. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara and Parker Posey shine.Superb movie.

tastyhotdogs "Waiting for Guffman" is another mockumentary done by Christopher Guest and co. It is set in the town of Blain and focuses on a musical being produced to honour the city's 150yr celebration.Corky (Guest) is the former off-off-off Broadway director who gathers a cast of local wannabe actors to put together a musical telling the proud town's history. Among the local "talent" are Ron & Sheila ALbertson (the awesome Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara) and dentist Dr Alan Pearl (Eugene Levy, funny as always). Excitement builds when the cast discovers Broadway producer Guffman is coming to town to see the musical, with many hoping this could be their big break.The last 20mins of the film is the musical itself, which is pretty funny, as well as charming. The crowd acts as if they're watching Shakespeare, and the cast gives it's all in what is a pretty amateur show.Some decent gags, many of which are subtle. Not in the "Best In Show" class, but not too bad. Guest and Willard keep the thing moving, but if Levy and Willard had greater roles in what is a short film, it could have been much better.

MisterWhiplash Waiting for Guffman wasn't the first Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy collaboration (as writers I mean, it's a Guest movie all the way) I had seen, but I think I probably would've reacted to it as I did after having seen it after Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. It's like Guest and his always inspired troupe were with a full burst of energy with their characters, even if they're all in a movie that's a little too short (it says 84 minutes but it feels even brisker if that's possible) and provides some characters who are funny all the time (like Guest's flamboyantly flamboyant Corky or Levy's nerdy and ostensibly Jewish Allan Pearl or Fred Willard as Rob Albertson), and some who are funny only in spurts like Catherine O'Hara or Bob Balaban. It's got quirky written all over the place, but it's always endearing in it's very strange way to show these people as they are, and the characters are likable even at their most deranged and just, well, 'small-town'.Guest plays the director of a small-town's 150th anniversary memorial play, about how a town in Missouri came to be. It's a chance really to get glimpses into the people who get the chance of a lifetime (err, for seemingly their mundane lifetimes), and especially for Corky who gives prima-donna an odd name; he almost storms off when he doesn't get the money he asks the committee for (calling them 'bastards' in an angry burst that's one of the funniest things I've ever seen from Guest in anything he's done). Then comes crunch-time for the show, as Corky has to take a part himself and Alan Pearl has to convincingly play a part he has absolutely no confidence at (those glasses!). And all the while, the 'Guffman' of the title- ala Godot- is a near God-like figure who could make or break the perception of the production for Corky and his cast. The final revelation from this is a comic classic touch.This all being said, I didn't really get the great big belly laughs and get as sucked into the world of these oddballs (and all done in improvisational form no less) as I did with the other films that have the mark of Guest and/or Levy. There are some parts where I'll smile at the near whimsy of what's going on, but a line might go flat or a bit a little weak. But if it's ever on TV, I'm sure I would tune in again just for a little while, if only to see a few of the songs from the 150th anniversary show (the 'Mars' song a favorite), and for that great epilogue.