Waiting for Guffman

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Ava S Another laugh-out-loud mockumentary from Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman features a quirky, surprisingly root-worthy cast of charmingly innocent small-town dreamers. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/08/25 Full Review Julian S Guest’s sharpest comedic moments emerge in the details, with GUFFMAN offering a nuanced character study of the absurd yet familiar dynamics of small-town life and its fleeting glory. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/13/24 Full Review Debra S This has long been one of my absolute favorite movies. I started to watch Theater Camp tonight, and was instantly reminded of Guffman. Turned off Theater Camp (for now, I'll come back to watch) and am now sitting here crying laughing watching Waiting for Guffman. I'm sorry....the ENTIRE MOVIE....Blaine Faban convinced the settlers they had made it to California, of course they couldn't see the ocean, because they were in Missouri. "I can relate to how it feels to be a Kennedy." "The circumference and the diameter remain the same." Always 67degress with a 40% chance of rain. No I wasn't the class clown, but I sat beside him, and I studied him Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review Matthew D Funny performances elevate this silly mockumentary. Director Christopher Guest's mockumentary comedy Waiting for Guffman (1996) is often funny and upbeat, but never quite hilarious enough to make you laugh out loud. Guest's direction nails the goofy, handheld mockumentary genre like Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap. I enjoyed it enough and appreciate that it was mercifully 84 minutes. Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer moving the camera around like he's interviewing people is funny. However it is editor Andy Blumenthal's sharp cutting that gives Waiting for Guffman humorous comedic timing. Someone will reference something that cannot happen, then Blumenthal cuts to just that occurring for a laugh. Guest's direction could have added in a few more jokes without so much improvised dialogue from Guest and Eugene Levy's script. It's very clever at times, but you can tell they were often winging it through scenes with stuttering dialogue. Christopher Guest's flamboyant and incompetent playwright Corky St. Clair is a great example of cringe comedy. Guest's acting is quite fun, but not nearly as funny as his supporting cast. Eugene Levy is another excellent portrayal of cringe comedy with his awkward dentist Dr. Allan Pearl trying to sing and dance like a middle aged man would. Fred Willard's overly excited travel agent Ron Albertson makes me chuckle with his every line delivery. Catherine O'Hara's exaggerated acting as Sheila Albertson is pleasant. I actually laughed the most at her hair constantly sticking up. Parker Posey steals the show as the depressed Dairy Queen employee girl Libby Mae Brown, who dreams of stardom. She feels just like real small town girls I've known who wished for better. Posey's line delivery is actually hilarious with her excited bad singing and wild dancing gestures. Posey looks like she had a blast filming Waiting for Guffman. Christopher Guest could have given her a larger role here to enhance the humor. Lewis Arquette is pretty charming as the gripping narrator of the play named Clifford Wooley. Bob Balaban's disbelieving music teacher Lloyd Miller is very funny. His expressions of disapproval at Corky's antics are a riot. Matt Keeslar's car mechanic Johnny Savage is fairly fun, but Brian Doyle-Murray's cameo as Red Savage in that scene is even funnier. Michael Hitchcock's Steve Stark and Larry Miller's Mayor Glenn Welsch are pretty great as the cheap councilmen of Blaine. David Cross gets a quick cameo as UFO Expert in a farm field that should have been longer. Linda Kash is amusing as the supportive Mrs. Pearl. Paul Dooley's UFO abductee has a wonderful monologue. Andrea Ariel's dance choreography is fun in how pathetic and inept it looks. This Is Spinal Tap composers Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean create actually clever and silly songs for Corky's awful play production. Costume designers Julie Carnahan and David W. King give everyone hideous, colorful outfits for Waiting for Guffman, except Parker gets cute costumes. Makeup artist Kate Shorter ensures everyone looks as terrible as possible, except Parker Posey looks gorgeous with lush vibrant eyeshadow and lipstick. Kelly Nelson's hairstyling sticks Catherine O'Hara's hair all the way up in front hilariously. I loved her flowing hairstyle for Parker Posey's LIbby. In all, Waiting for Guffman is vaguely funny, but could have been hilarious. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/06/23 Full Review Lori H An absolute classic. I rarely watch films more than once...but I bet I've seen Guffman 20 times. It never gets old... Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/03/23 Full Review Taylor L "I'm trying to get ... it's very rare ... the action figures for Das Boot." You can always tell a Christopher Guest mockumentary in the first few minutes because of the improvisational way he treats his dialogue; it gives this flustered authenticity to the conversation, which tends to bypass traditional scriptwriting in favor of this spur-of-the-moment wordplay that allows the characters to grow naturally. At the opposite end, it's tough to create full musical numbers spontaneously, and the music team delivers these high-energy pieces that play off of the rest of the film's deadpan energy very well. In plot, it was probably a bit of a balancing act developing Waiting for Guffman, parodying small-town America without coming off as cruel or dismissive, but the intention doesn't seem to be to make people out as small-town hicks, but to celebrate the out-of-the-way places in an unorthodox way. It certainly helps with the raft of comedic talent on hand, Eugene Levy, Guest himself, and particularly the duo of Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard. Even Bob Odenkirk shows up in a minor role. Now where to buy those My Dinner With Andre action figures or the Remains of the Day lunchboxes... (3.5/5) Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/01/22 Full Review Read all reviews

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