Went to the Washington premier at the AFI Silver in....er...Silver Spring. For those who care the renovated theatre is beautiful. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Eugene Levy were in attendence and gave a short talk before hand. Note to any of you who might be in a situation where you have to interview Mr. Guest live. Don't do it, he'll roast you alive. That said it was quite fun to see the hapless fellow from the AFI squirm under the almighty comedic power that is Christopher Guest. The film itself was very good. It didn't soar to the heights that "Spinal Tap" or "Waiting for Guffman" did. The worst criticism I could level at the movie is the crew repsponsible might be getting a bit "franchisy" (I know it's not a word, cut me some slack) with their material. Nothing will be that far off the path from the past outings from the Guest/McKean/Levy etc mob. Now the good news. It was a very solid effort with quite a few belly laughs. As always they nail the characterizations. As with "Best In Show" it's not necessary to be overly familiar with the specific subculture being lampooned to get what's going on. One thing that struck me a bit odd in this film, was the music. In "Tap" and "Guffman" the music was definitely humorous. The music in these films, while well done, were comedic bits. In this film the music plays pretty straight up. You get the feeling that the frustrated musician that they all are is winning out. Not that that's a bad thing. In this films they've created spot on perfect pastiches of 50-60s folks music (New Christy Minstrels, Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary, Sonny & Cher, etc). Christopher Guest does the best Glen Yarbourough you will ever see/hear. In short if you loved the earlier films, you'll love this one. I can see some who might not suffer this film gladly, but I imagine they'll be few and far between. As a side note, my wife works for the Art Deco Society of Washington who fought a very long and very bitter battle to keep the Silver Theatre from being torn down and turned into a Burger King or Starbucks or what have you. Did they get any love from the AFI folks? Nope not a bit of it.
Thanks for the review...gotta see it this weekend for sure, now. What a great band name that would be!
Excellent movie. I put it below Waiting For Guffman and This is Spinal Tap, but above Best in Show. But that certainly doesn't mean that it's anything less than supurb. Amazingly, Eugene Levy had the worst role in the movie. He was onscreen too much. "I'm a model train entheusiast." "Ooooh. Thank GOD for model trains. If it weren't for model trains, they never would have come up with the idea for the big trains."
"Wha' Happened?" ...i enjoyed it more than guffman but less than best in show and spinal tap. it was surprisingly poignant at times...and as always there wasnt enough of fred willard.
I don't know why, but the night we saw this film, the image of this character "humming" hit me just as I was drifting off to sleep and I couldn't get to sleep because I was trying not to laugh and wake up my wife. Not as good as Spinal Tap, but still a great film. Oddly enough, my favorite scene might have been the one they played the straightest: when everyone was watching from the wings to see how Mitch and Mickie managed "the kiss."
A Mighty Wind I laughed so hard!!! I thought its a great movie, but my boyfriend thought that Best of Show was better. Its a must see!
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and found it downright endearing. I was rooting for Mitch to get the kiss in at the end. And Fred Willard, who I thought was not very funny in "Best In Show", is an absolute riot here -- everything about The New Main Street Singers I thought was hysterical. Every time I see Lanky's avatar (Willard's face with "Wha' happened?" above it) I laugh out loud again. Sadly, the Folksmen were the weakest of the three acts. The only part of their bit that was laugh out loud funny was when they were talking about their record label. They were Spinal Tap's opening act during their last tour, which I have to admit I paid to see at Carnegie Hall. They played "Old Joe's Place", a rather absurd folk version of the Stones' "Start Me Up", and then went into the speech that you see in the movie (with the same ending). It worked much better live than it did in the movie.
Haven't seen it yet, but I have all of Guffman memorized and quote it on a daily basis. I loved Best in Show too, haven't seen Spinal Tap.
Worst of the movies. Very dissapointed. They spent too much time on serious-style songs and not enough on comedy. And the funniest characters are seen the least (the colour cult, Fred "Wha' Happened?" Willard, Jennifer Coolidge's character). The Mitch and Mickey storyline took up way too much space.
"A Mighty Wind" Cast Performs Free Concert: http://www.njo.com/newsflash/entertainment/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1053880440235010.xml