A Mighty Wind (2003)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Fresh and Exciting

Blistering performances.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Organising a revival show for three 1960s folk music acts proves challenging for the son of a legendary concert promoter in this mockumentary from Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest. Much of the dialogue is memorable ("abuse in my family... mostly musical in nature") and the film is full of colourful characters, especially Fred Willard's stand-up comedian unaware of his own lameness. In fact, all concerned deliver energetically, and yet the film never coalesces into more than a series of rather random, offbeat episodes, none of which are especially funny. This is a rare comedy for which the audio commentary (by Levy and Guest) is actually funnier than the film itself as Guest keeps throwing in funny lines as "it was my idea to have him... talk" and as the pair discuss the detailed background stories they developed for each and every character (little of which made it into the final film). This perhaps highlights the film's biggest shortcoming: all of the characters are wonderfully imaginative, but the structure of the film never gives us a chance to get to know most of them and feel their anxiety/desire over a comeback. All that said and done, the film concludes on a strong note with a great eventual concert (and lots of memorable songs), but Guest's subsequent 'For Your Consideration' - and his debut 'The Big Picture' - provide a better indication of his talent.

A Mighty Wind (2003): Dir: Christopher Guest / Cast: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Michael McKean: Fascinating comic documentary about folk music. Title suggests an emerging of something that once was and will be again. After a folk music promoter dies his son Jonathan decides to reunite talent he represented for a benefit concert. Among those artists are the Folksmen who reunite after thirty years. The Street Singers are very passionate about their involvement. Finally there is Mitch and Mickey who sing "A Kiss At the End of the Rainbow." This opens an interesting subplot regarding Mitch's split with Mickey and the nervous breakdown that followed. Their signature song always concluded with a kiss. Great setup with often amusing interviews with participants. Directed by Christopher Guest who previously made Waiting for Guffman. Scene stealing performances by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as Mitch and Mickey whose scenes provide the best humour. Bob Balaban plays Jonathan who frantically struggles to arrange this event. Fred Willard is always funny and here he makes an appearance and laughs at his own jokes. Then we have Michael McKean jamming away with the Folksman alongside Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. Wonderful portrayal of folk music and a time that will breeze through one more time. Score: 10 / 10

Have to say, for me, that nothing will ever Christopher Guest's brilliant "Waiting for Guffman," but "A Mighty Wind" from 2003 is a fantastic mockumentary. I found it superior to "Best in Show."This time it's a faux documentary on the reunion of '60s folk singers at Town Hall as a tribute to a late concert producer, Irving Steinbloom, arranged by his son (Bob Balaban). The performers include Mitch & Mickey, The Folksmen, and The New Main Street Singers. The cast is made up of many of Christopher Guest's repertory company: Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Michael Hitchcock, Parker Posey, Paul Dooley, and Paul Benedict; also Ed Begley Jr., Jane Lynch, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and John Michael Higgins.There are some hilarious moments, but the best thing about this film is how Guest and other composers and lyricists have captured the music, mind-blowingly authentic, as are the groups. Everyone is terrific. Some standouts are: Ed Begley as Lars Olfen, using a Yiddish phrase or word several times a sentence; Catherine O'Hara as the Mickey of Mitch & Mickey, and her nearly brain-dead partner (Levy); and Jane Lynch and John Michael Higgins, an out-there couple who worship color. Balaban underplays and makes his role as the organizing son of the late, great Steinbloom totally believable and documentary-like.If you haven't seen this, check it out, and remember (from the song "Old Joe's Place") Well…..there's a puppy in the parlor, And skillet on the stove, And a smelly old blanket, With a Navajo wove, There's a chicken on the table, But you got to say grace, There's always something cooking at, Old Joe's Place.And at Christopher Guest's.

Comedy in film is one thing which I tend to worry about more than many other factors. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I cannot precisely point out what I want from a comedy film that I feel uneasy watching them, afraid they will disappoint these hidden standards. With that in mind, and with an urge to laugh, I turned to the well trusted Christopher Guest.A musical mockumentary, A Mighty Wind covers the organisation of a tribute concert to recently deceased folk music magnate Irving Steinbloom, to be performed by three of the acts he helped launch in the course of his career: The New Main Street Singers; The Folksmen; Mitch & Mickey.Both A Mighty Wind and Best in Show, prior to my recent viewings thereof, lingered vaguely in the back of my mind from my first viewings several years ago. I can recall being, back then, thoroughly amused by the films but simultaneously gripped by a sense that so much was passing me by. It is only now that I realise quite how right I was, the layered approach to Guest's comedy ever more evident with the increased wisdom of years. Co-writing with Eugene Levy, and reputedly allowing for a great deal of improvisation, Guest creates a hybrid of comedic styles that keeps you laughing from start to stop. Perhaps it is in the nature of these humorous situations that the film finds its effect. There are no grand set pieces, no tigers in bathrooms. There are only people, behaving in an entirely human manner. Steinbloom's son, determined to give his father the perfect tribute, fusses over every detail of the concert, worrying that perhaps the chosen flowers may prove dangerous to exposed eyeballs. It is the realism of these characters, these situations, and these words that is so achingly funny. We all know people like this, people who would agree with the younger Steinbloom in his assessment of topiary hazards. Guest and co require no fantastical and otherworldly sequences of events to illicit our laughs; they need only reality and the true-to-life characteristics of the people around us. Real life is funnier than anything fantasy can dream up, and the mockumentary format makes A Mighty Wind feel as though this is reality at its most unadulterated. The laughs come fast, hard, and with an emphatic truth that makes them more amusing than just about anything else. This, I think, is the appeal of Guest's directorial work (or at least what I've seen of it), and it is what makes him one of the best comedic filmmakers today. Needless to say his regular cast works astoundingly well together, his reasons for re-using the same actors repeatedly easy to understand. What is truly exceptional about A Mighty Wind, ranking it above the frankly funnier Best in Show and more scathingly reflective For Your Consideration, is its humanity. I dare say nobody who watches this film will ever be able to forget the interminable sweetness of Mitch & Mickey, easily among the greatest screen couples of all time. An utterly compelling and at times quite saddening romantic subplot underscores the film with such a poetic drama that one cannot help but be moved as well as amused. And their song... Oh their song... Words cannot describe.With the wonderful humour of Guest's comedies, A Mighty Wind stands head and shoulders above almost all competition. Its humour lies in the reality of its situations, and the normality of its characters. Equipped with a disarmingly charming romance that will test the most hardened of hearts, it also boasts a fantastic soundtrack to compliment this fantastic comedy.