A Mighty Wind

It's amazing how well executed this movie is. It seems realisic and yet so..."movie!" Christopher Guest (who did a fine "guest" on Saturday Night Live in a game show skit..."Chocolate Babies?") did some great work on this and all of the characters are classic. Eugene Levy may be the best in this. His performance of Mitch, or rather the shell of what Mitch once was is hilarious. The best scene is, in my opinion, the scene in which Mickey's wife shows Mitch his model trains and model town. Levy's comments about seeing the town in the autumn ("I would have made tiny leaves...") are the funniest lines in the film. The Folksmen show off funny interaction scenes (yep, those are the guys from Spinal Tap) and The New Mainstreet Singers are definitely the commercial b*st*rds of this film. W.I.N.C.-a religion based on color. That's classic. I would recommend getting the DVD for the great deleted scenes, including a press conference in which Mitch talks about Canadian hip-hop, where kids rap about cleanliness.

I love this film. Despite it's rating, a great family movie. The sexual references are minor. There's just two scenes. One: A brief talk about a sex emporium and Two: References to starring in dirty movies. Get past these and mom, dad and the kids can have a good time. Just punch a hole in the record first.

Christopher Guest's movies, like his performances, are generally subtle and always low-key. They are not for people who need laugh tracks to follow the humor and most of his work is so contextually-based that some knowledge of the subject he's dissecting is a definite asset. Guest, who was a performer in the very early SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, is, in many respects, the Anti-Belushi of modern American comedy.

Nevertheless, he shares with Belushi - and many of their contemporaries, who came from one or another branch of the Second City organization - a certain fondness for off-the-wall elements in his work; Guest's tend to be slipped in, quietly, while Belushi's popped out of exploding cakes.

A MIGHTY WIND is a spot-on satire of the American Folk Music movement of the early and mid-1960s. The narrative conceit is a memorial concert for a recently deceased impressario, organized by his son, which reunites three folk groups from the 60s.

The real elements of the film are the send-ups of a variety of tropes of the era, musical styles, personalities, and quite an array of music-business cliches. Remarkably, however, the songs are genuinely entertaining in themselves; both the writing and the performances. They're satirical, but so subtlely performed that it's easy to loose the thread of the lyrics and wind up mindlessly nodding heads and grooving along, which pretty neatly captures the popular music experience for the last several generations. Satire within satire.

The musical performances are excellent, recreating, almost frighteningly, the taste and texture of folk music of the era. And, bringing several real 60s folk acts to mind.

The acting is typical of Guest movies, such as SPINAL TAP and BEST IN SHOW; very quiet, restrained, low-key, with, apparently, a lot of dialogue improvised. The performers are mostly drawn from the same group Guest has used in the past: Eugene Levy (who co-wrote the script with Guest) and Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Ed Begley, Jr., and Guest, himself.

Comparisons with Guest's most popular picture, THIS IS SPINAL TAP are both interesting and tricky. Interesting because both movies were written and directed by the same man, and shared most of the same casts. Tricky, because while some seem to compare AMW unfavorably with TIST, a looking at these films, together, they have a lot in common. So much so, in fact, that it's reasonable to consider them a pair; very similar takes on two, distinct musical genres of a similar era. The writing, acting, tone, pacing of these two movies is very similar. The jokes are similar. The points of view are similar. The focus on both performers, and the behind-the-scenes people is similar. The real difference is the music.

This, in turn, tends to suggest that those who react very differently to these two films may be reacting more to the music, directly, and to the ambiance of the world around the particular musical genre more than anything else.

Guest's movies don't have many laugh-out-loud moments. Most of the humor is more the "big-smile", sometimes, the chuckle, kind. But, Ed Begley, Jr. has perhaps his best comic scene, ever, when he does a take as a Swedish-American public television producer dropping Yiddish into his conversation; one word per sentence. It's a totally dead-pan and very quiet performance which, like so much of Christopher Guest's humor, you will either get or not get. If you do, you may fall off your chair.

Eugene Levy, who co-wrote the script, with Guest, is also very good, having finally invented a second character after having spent something more than 30 years (since his Second City TV days) doing variations of one.

Who might enjoy A MIGHTY WIND? Anyone who remembers the era and the music, and anyone who enjoys show business insider takes. It's a more difficult call for those born later. And, if you have trouble keeping Janis Joplin and Joanie Mitchell distinct in your mind, you probably won't follow most of what's going on.

It's of course hilarious, but it's also his only mockumentary with real heart, and boy does it work. O'Hara and Levy lean on their decades of natural chemistry to make their post-romance relationship both gut-bustingly funny and sensibly sad. All three of the groups are uniquely perfect, and their musical performances are inspired. And if anyone wonders what made Fred Willard so beloved, just watch his tour de force introduction in this movie...it's everything.

Another in a long list of films that have been recommended to me, `A Mighty Wind' was probably one of the funniest films I've seen this century. The mockumentary style of `This is Spinal Tap' has always been a favorite of mine, and this film, about the reunion of three folk groups after the death of the owner of their former record label is absolutely hilarious. Christopher Guest's usual cast is involved, though Eugene Levy and Harry Shearer stood out for me personally. (Although every time Shearer's character spoke I couldn't get the image of Principal Skinner from `The Simpsons' out of my head.)

Anyone with either an absurdist or dry sense of humor will find this movie funny. Speaking for myself, I rarely laugh out loud when watching films by myself at home and I was in tears from having fits of laughter throughout most of the film. The writing is above brilliant, and the acting and timing are dead on. I haven't seen the other two `recent' films that proceeded this one, `Best in Show' and `Waiting for Guffman', but after seeing `A Mighty Wind' I will definitely check them out in the very near future.

--Shelly

SPOILERS LIE AHEAD

A Mighty Wind is a film that I loved, and it disappoints me that there were so many critics and filmgoers who were disappointed with it. It seems that quite a few people think that comedies, especially the ones of the mockumentary sort (as this one is), can't go farther then simple mocking. It puzzles me that so many were in agreement that a film about a bittersweet reunion can't be good comedy. I think some moviegoers need quit worrying about smuggling that bag of Milk Duds into the theater and remember to bring an open mind. There may be funnier, more farcical situations (which have been the basis of many, many lesser films), but a bittersweet reunion can inspire comedic moments as well as be the basis for a great film, which A Mighty Wind is.

Christopher Guest, who has championed the film making style that is mockumentary with his role in the classic This Is Spinal Tap, and by directing the hilarious Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, directs as well as co-writes the story with Eugene Levy (the actual lines are all improvised by the actors).

The film plays as a documentary about the organization of a memorial concert featuring folk groups from the 60's who were managed by the late Irving Steinbloom. The groups featured in the concert are the cheesy "neuftet" The New Main Street Singers, the classic folk trio The Folksmen, and the former sweethearts of the folk music world Mitch and Mickey.

The best performance in the film is that of Catherine O'Hara as Mickey Crabbe. She boldly doesn't go for all the laughs, and creates a complete, full, interesting character. Note the interview scenes where she reminisces about her past as one half of the folk "phenomenon" that was Mitch and Mickey. When she talks about their relationship you can see and hear that this is a woman who loved Mitch and Mickey, but not Mitch. Levy is also superb as Mitch Cohen, clearly still in love with Mickey but also clearly insane. He creates an almost over the top comedic performance that makes great use of his infamous eyebrows. He is in a constant state of uncomfortable quirkiness, except when he is singing with Mickey, and he remembers what their relationship used to be, and how it felt to be loved. Note the scene where the two practice one of their hits, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," and don't know what to do when its time for them to lovingly kiss each other, which was their claim to fame when they were making TV appearances back in the 60's. Without saying a word, they agree that it would be inappropriate and continue to the end of the song. O'Hara's reaction to that moment is perfect. Then note the scene when they perform the song at the concert and, each for different reasons, they decide to do the kiss. When I first saw that moment and the characters' reaction to it, I got goosebumps. I realized that for the first time in any of Guest's mockumentaries, I actually cared for the characters, and I loved it. It's great that instead of going down that road taken by so many other films, where the former lovers find that they have loved each-other all along and have sex to affirm this to the audience, A Mighty Wind gives something far more interesting.

Although the Mitch & Mickey relationship is the heart of the film, it should not be forgotten that this an ensemble movie. There are terrific comedic performances all around, including those of Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Guest as the members of The Folksmen, John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch as the color worshiping Terry and Laurie Bohner, Jennifer Coolidge as the can't-quite-place-her-accent Amber Cole, Fred Willard as the outrageously sad Mike LaFontaine and Ed Begley Jr. the yiddish talking Swede Lars Olfen.

It may not have gotten as many laughs as This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, or Best in Show, but A Mighty Wind bravely goes where those films didn't. It achieves touching, real emotion. It is one of the best films of 2003.