Waiting for Guffman

1996 mockumentary

Rating: 14/20 (Jen: 11/20)

Plot: Speck-on-the-map Blaine, Missouri is celebrating its 150th birthday with an amateur stage performance about the town's history. Corky St. Clair, a dramatist with unrealistic aspirations, gets together a couple travel agents, a Dairy Queen employee, and a dentist and prepares his show. And what a big show it is, for Guffman, straight from Broadway, is due to arrive, enjoy their performance, and get them a shot on the big stage.

I'm not sure there's one joke I'm going to remember in this one. No, I take that back. I'll remember David Cross's cameo as a ufologist. Still, I chortled quite a bit, as much as I would during three episodes of Parks and Recreation anyway. Guffman satirizes middle America fairly well, and I like how the characters, other than Christopher Guest's Corky, aren't over-the-top. Good comic performances from those types of guys who are good at this sort of thing--Eugene Levy, Don Lake, Fred Willard, and the wonderful Paul Benedict. In case you don't know the name, Paul Benedict is that one guy. It all builds up to the big night and the big performance, but it's sort of like a firework that's a dud. It pops a little, throws out a couple sparks, and fades. Overall, this is like a joke that builds to a predictable (but still funny) punch-line, but it's a fun enough way to pass some time. I can't get enough of the mockumentary format.