Hollywood comedy-hyphenate Christopher Guest’s mockumentary WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, his second feature film as a director, pivots around the production of a community musical called “Red, White, and Blaine”, which chronicles the history of the fictive town Blaine, Missouri, to coincide with its 150th anniversary, and is supervised by the off-center director Corky St. Clair (Guest), who purports to have a past in the off-off-off-off-Broadway.
Ostensibly posing as a documentary interviewing Blaine’s manifold townsfolk, from city councilors, UFO experts, to those involved in the musical production, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN is also a jewel of improvisation, the majority of its hilarious lines, dialogue and personal interactions is ad-libbed (though Guest and Eugene Levy nominally take the credits as the scenarists), and delightfully, each member of Guest’s stock company is gung-ho to contribute their own laugh lines into the fold, and the entire film is washed with uncynical ironies, from a pair of travel agents who has never ventured out of the town (save for a sexual organ reduction surgery, no less!), to the town’s geography-challenged founding father, the much plugged stool manufacture (and those who can perform and utter it with a perfect serious face), not to mention the UFO abduction anecdote, a self-claimed abductee (Dooley) recounts that he has been multiply probed.
Taking into account of the film’s highly unsystematic makeup, it is no small feat that Guest covers the whole gamut of producing a stage musical with brisk efficiency and coherence, sequentially, auditions, casting, rehearsals, extra funds solicitation (ending up with a storming-off), Corky’s petulant resign and none-too-tardy comeback, and the final showtime, with the expectancy of the advent of Mr. Guffman, a theater critic from the Big Apple, who might bring the production to Broadway! Everything is effected in cruise control mostly courtesy to the fantastic dramatis personae.
Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara are sidesplitting as Ron and Sheila Albertson, the genial couple harboring a Hollywood dream, who also have some antics in their sleeves, and with some alcohol under the belts, they are not shy of spilling some saucy beans to their prudish friends; Bob Balaban, as the frustrating school music teacher, goes against the grain of broad comic to emit his more subdued, simmering grievance; there is the inimitable Posey Parker, apart from being a pert sprite, can also elicit our compassion with her casual but unfeigned confession of a small-town gal fantasizing escaping onto a bigger canvas, and Eugene Levy is exceedingly competent as the straight-arrow dentist Allan, whose inner fire as an entertainer is potently triggered by being offered a major part in the musical, and his lazy eye prank is a pure killer.
Still and all, Guest’s superlative impersonation of Corky is another fount of our jouissance, despite of the obvious gay mannerism, and Corky’s overt interest in the mechanic stud Johnny Savage (Keeslar), thankfully the film doesn’t lay it on thick with more concrete developments, the situation of an absent wife alone speaks enough volumes of the unmasked truth.
The resultant musical itself, unsurprisingly, is a down-home, ludicrous parody of Americana’s cracker-barrel banality and wholesome innocuousness (an amusingly jarring synergy with its modern-ish instrumental accompaniment), however, Guest’s savvy mind puts no icing on this kitsch cake, a no-show Mr. Guffman is no savior to deliver the performers from their unfulfilled status quo, but that doesn’t mean they will stop trying, as the end points up soberingly, that is the veritable American spirit one should cleave to, which makes WAITING FOR GUFFMAN several notches above any number of one’s average, campy, feel-good comedies.
referential entries: Guest’s FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (2006, 6.7/10); Mel Brooks THE PRODUCERS (1967, 7.2/10).
#IntroToActingAndDirecting 02 Improv佳作
Corky太灵性了
如果不曾被小镇文化包围,是很难感受到里面的戏剧张力和对中部城市、演艺界的讽刺。(同样不太感冒的还有导演参与的《摇滚万万岁》)从他国文化下的一个小分支类别的伪纪录片里获取真实感的门槛还是有些高的。
使用严肃题材常用的记录风格展示颇为滑稽却带有浓烈现实色彩的内容,让美国梦这个概念显得荒诞又不切实际,影片拉近了观众间的距离却强调了真正的现实与美国娱乐业所展示现实间的遥远距离...
media
伪纪录片的拍摄方式,等待戈多的戈多变成了古夫曼,自然古夫曼从未在影片中现身,身怀梦想的业余演员和gay导演最终在误以为古夫曼来临之际呈现了自己最好的表演,最终一切又归于平静。
有意思的黑色幽默
这片就像一个朋友对你说了一个不怎么好笑的笑话一样
很温情脉脉的简单老套故事,虽然手法新颖,但是终究避免不了俗套。可是因为伪纪录片的手法,让观众由衷的微笑。
痴人说梦也是美好的,有所期盼就给苍白现实带来了色彩。
讲述为小镇150周年庆,几位素人参加彩排及演出的前前后后的故事。前三分之一纯对白纪录片式,我觉得还可以看看,可后面演出真没啥况味。。。这么生冷内容的90年代片,腾讯却有高清资源放,我猜是不是打包采购来的或者赠片呀。哈哈。评:2.6星。不值得大家花时间看。
看了cast才知道Corky是導演本人...太騷太gay太有愛了2333
与古夫曼晚餐
看这些演员现在的戏,感慨岁月匆匆
在MISSOURI的人……看这个故事别有趣味……
北海看过.这部著名的遗珠小片特殊的地方是搬用了当时美国时髦的文献剧模式.效果居然是很不错的.美国电影对小镇生活的精微捕捉在这里得到了继承.居然又出现了MATT KEESLER!哇操...他实在是太辣了!
American Dream
密苏里小镇业余音乐剧排练记。影像质感可把Errol Morris学得真像~Guest这次演了个从百老汇败退下来的(柜内)娘炮,深谙“烂演技”之道。看这哥们实在难以想象他有男爵头衔。。。
很有意思
妈呀 与安德烈晚餐的手办戳到我的笑点了,加一星。总体而言还是平平淡淡吧。