Waiting for Guffman

B-

Directed by Christopher Guest

Whenever anyone asks me if I've seen a Christopher Guest film, I always tell them that I've seen "Best in Show" and "Spinal Tap" to which they invariably respond "Wait until you see 'Waiting for Guffman!'" Well I just saw "Waiting for Guffman" and must say that I was pretty disappointed. Maybe the weight of expectations choked out any possible enjoyment I could have derived from this film but I found it only marginally funny which, from the guy who brought us Fred Willard as an inept and hilarious dog show host, is pretty much unexceptable.

Corky St. Clair is a former off-off-off-off-off broadway playright who has somehow landed in tiny Blaine Missouri where he is now in charge of putting together a patriotically infused play for Blaine's anniversary. To do so, he recruits the talented townsfolk, played here by regular Guest colloborators such as Eugene Levey, Fred Willard, and Parker Posey, and sets off to make an epic play the likes of which the Midwest has never seen before. In the midst of rehearsals, Corky finds out that major talent scout Mort Guffman may be in the audience, a fact he shares with his impressionable cast who immediately hear the call of Hollywood.

"Waiting for Guffman" isn't unfunny but I will say that it goes through large stretches of fairly uninspiring humour before unleashing a flury of hilarious Christopher Guest style moments. The issue really is that "Waiting for Guffman" lacks the constant, underlying humour of a film like ÈBest in Show" where, even if something hilarious wasn't happening, you still couldn't help from laughing just because of the ridiculousness of the situation. Ièm sure "Waiting for Guffmann succeeds on this level for many people, and there is no denying that it has it's fair share of funny moments, but overall I simply didn't find this film that funny and since the only point of a Chistopher Guest mocumentary is to draw laughs, I can't say I was overly impressed.