A Mighty Wind
| Year: | 2003 |
| Director: | Christopher Guest |
| Writer: | Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy |
| Cast: | Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Bob Balaban, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Jayne Lynch, Larry Miller, Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Begley Jr |
The beauty of the Guest/McKean/Levy mockumentary genre is that subtlety of the writing and performance. One step too far and it'd be too obvious it was put on, a line Guest and company are very careful and skilled at coming dangerously close to but never stepping over.
After all, there aren't many filmmakers that can say they created a genre, and with films like This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show and Waiting for Guffman, they've honed their talents not just in writing but casting as well.
What isn't immediately apparent is that they select for their topics institutions with just a little cultural desperation about them, where the characters are a little pathetic and the personalities and fans are sort of losers (folk music, dog shows, amateur theatre).
This time they look at the folk music era and the heroes that embodied it, mostly now washed up has-beens. The father of the folk music industry has died and his children (led by Bob Balaban) want to collect his best acts together to put on a tribute concert.
Following the trials and tribulations of planning and executing the show, the movie is one laugh after another, purely because of the seriousness with which Guest and Levy treat their characters in the writing and directing.
After all, there aren't many filmmakers that can say they created a genre, and with films like This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show and Waiting for Guffman, they've honed their talents not just in writing but casting as well.
What isn't immediately apparent is that they select for their topics institutions with just a little cultural desperation about them, where the characters are a little pathetic and the personalities and fans are sort of losers (folk music, dog shows, amateur theatre).
This time they look at the folk music era and the heroes that embodied it, mostly now washed up has-beens. The father of the folk music industry has died and his children (led by Bob Balaban) want to collect his best acts together to put on a tribute concert.
Following the trials and tribulations of planning and executing the show, the movie is one laugh after another, purely because of the seriousness with which Guest and Levy treat their characters in the writing and directing.