"For Your Consideration" -- the new Christopher Guest movie

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Official site, IMDB entry. Apparently much improvised but as the trailers show not shot in Guest's recent fake doc style. Tons of usual suspects (Guest obv., O'Hara, Levy, Shearer, McKean, Posey, Begley Jr., Willard, Lynch, etc.) plus a few new faces, most notably Ricky Gervais. I kinda want to assume this is a not-a-sequel-but-bear-with-me follow-on to The Big Picture in terms of subject matter.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 October 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of people have said it relies too much on Jew jokes. Michael Musto said it was fantastic. Seeing as Guest is one of my absolute favorite directors and Musto is simply fabulous, it should be phenomenal.

― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

Let me guess: you're gay.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

It's almost to the point I don't want to go back and watch Guffman again, for fear I'll find it as unfunny as the last couple were.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

Best in Show, unfunny? OMG! Somebody whip this mongoloid about the nether-regions!

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

Spinal Tap>>>>>>>Best in Show>>>>>>>Mighty Wind>>>>>Guffman

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

That is lunacy.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:57 (nineteen years ago)

You're nuts.

Eric, I watched Guffman recently (maybe my 7th or 8th time overall?) and it still holds up, I think. But I haven't seen any of the others more than once, so it's hard to say. Guffman didn't become REALLY funny to me until the third viewing, anyway.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

Eric H. OTM. Guffman still holds up, though.

I'm so mad that Ricky Gervais is in this, because I was planning on staying the fuck away. The trailer looks terrible.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

Colin why do you hate fun.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

Actually Ward's listing of the four mock doc films prompts me to ask -- *does* anyone remember The Big Picture other than me? That and Almost Heroes are the two 'forgotten' films Guest's directed, I think. (Aside from the TV movie stuff.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

I think it's safe to say I don't wish an Oscar upon Catharine O'Hara. I like her too much to wish her that.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

I do want to see The Big Picture, I'll admit.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

The trailer for this was disgraceful. Not a single half-funny line.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, the trailer underwhelmed me as well. I still have hopes but they're conditional.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

a few new faces, most notably Ricky Gervais

RICKY GERVAIS PLAYING A CHARACTER THAT ISN'T ANYTHING LIKE HIM OH NO: God I fucking hate Yids. There's a Jew standing behind me, right? I actually like them!

(A JEW REACTS)

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

The Big Picture is fantastic! It's all about J.T. Walsh in that movie...

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

Good, I'm not alone!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 October 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

I've seen The Big Picture and remember very little about it, which is not a good sign. The recomendations on this thread are making me think I should give it another shot, though.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 26 October 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

*does* anyone remember The Big Picture other than me?

comedy central would play it all the time in the mid-90s. i just remember teri hatcher and the guy from Head of the Class.

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 26 October 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

laffed hard during the trailer, couldn't tell you what gervais does in this (seemed maybe to be playing the balaban part?). the first parker posey line esp provoked a guffaw, there's a hint of sctv venom to this thing which i welcome. main thing i remember about big picture was john cleese and jennifer jason-leigh and that it was ok, not great.

spinal tap>>>>>guffman>a mighty wind>>>>best in show - like them all though

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 October 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

Another vote for 'The Big Picture'! I love that movie - remember the 'avant garde' music video segment with the huge Pez dispenser costumes?

― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Friday, 27 October 2006 08:27 (nineteen years ago)

I've noticed people with some theater background tend to like Guffman more, dog people tend to like Best in Show more, and music people, especially if they know about or remember the folk revival, tend to like Mighty Wind more. I thought they were all pretty good.

However, Jews like myself are a little sick of Jew gags - it's been done to death. I laughed at one part in the trailer - "Someone has killed their children and made them into cookies - and I wanna go see that."

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 27 October 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

this looks like something woody allen would follow up 'curse of the jade scorpion' with

― and what (ooo), Friday, 27 October 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

I've noticed people with some theater background tend to like Guffman more

Yeah, this was def a selling point for me. Lloyd's line, "Now you guys sing 'Nothing ever happens in Blaine' while the two of you sing 'Nothing ever happens in Blay' -- leave off the N" made me laugh really hard the first time I saw it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 27 October 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

"Nothing Ever Happens On Mars" is classic.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

BORING BORING BORING BORING

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

Uh, what? Did you see a sneak of it or...?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

(xp) Actually, I was singing that in the shower this morning: "...on the planet named for the Roman god of war."

"Nothing Ever Happens on Mars" is clearly meant to be a reprise of "Nothing Ever Happens in Blaine," so the latter must have been cut from the film.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

(Ned, he's quoting Guffman.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

See, Guffman is the one I haven't seen in a while! (Mind you I should have remembered that line more readily.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

Method Man feat. Eugene Levy - N.E.H.O.N.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

so the latter must have been cut from the film.

That number is in the outtakes on the DVD.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

...alongside 'This Bulging River" which, had it not been cut, would have been the funniest thing in the movie.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 27 October 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

i saw this... there were a couple of good jokes but overall totally weak. guest is such a frustratingly lazy filmmaker.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 27 October 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

REAL softball hollywood satire.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 27 October 2006 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

At least Oscar campaigning fits perfectly with his pick-the-low-hanging-fruit aesthetic.

All you need to know is in yesterday's NYTimes Mag profile:

It is that whimsy, tempered only by the insistence of human nature to exert itself, that characterizes Guest’s films, which are a departure from his baser beginnings in comedy. In a skit in “National Lampoon’s Lemmings,” he appeared as James Taylor and sang: “Farewell New York City/With your streets that flash like strobes/Farewell Carolina/Where I left my frontal lobes.”

He winced at the mention. “James Taylor came to the show with Carly Simon, and she was laughing and he wasn’t,” he said. “As a joke, it was a major cheap shot. They came backstage, and I was devastated, because he was such a hero to me. As a satirist you’re not supposed to care about that. I guess what I’m doing now really represents who I am and always was. It just took a while to happen.”

He was doomed from that moment on. And dude, YOU'RE NOT A SATIRIST.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

Um, how exactly is he NOT a satirist?

― stoked for the madness (nickalicious), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

He is a parodist of trivia. Satirists skewer important things.

And satirists don't have James fuckin' Taylor for a hero.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

you're losing your way morbius.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

Very excited to see this!

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

i thought the trailer was really unfunny.

― geoff (gcannon), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:18 (nineteen years ago)

and oscar campaigning is an order of magnitude lower-hanging than his other targets!

― geoff (gcannon), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

how so, s1ocki? I can go with "frustratingly lazy," too. Yeah, dog shows and smalltown musicales lie near the core of American econo-power.

Maybe his next film will be REAL chancy, savaging the 1-800-florist industry.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

what are your top ten other movies about dog shows and/or community theater

― geoff (gcannon), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

or yes he should do a hilarious and biting POLITICAL SATIRE!! maybe about a talk show host who runs for president...AND WINS

― geoff (gcannon), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

I can't imagine that was satire either and you know it.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

Satirists skewer important things.

You have, in fairness, just made this rule up.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:34 (nineteen years ago)

Webster's sez "trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly."

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

But Guest's movies have never been about skewering anything. They're affectionate miniatures. If you don't like that sort of thing, fine, move along. But his first three (four, if you count Spinal Tap) are among my favorite comedies, and this one should at the very least be good fun in parts.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:38 (nineteen years ago)

jaymc beat me to that def... Guest's movies ridicule pastimes and entertainment rather than vice and follies (and when he locks his laser on '60s folk, hello, NO POLITICS).

He identifies himself as a satirist esp in the Lampoon era, and he's got a case there. I don't even hate the movies -- they're mildly amusing, and Eugene Levy is usually amazing -- but I'm not paying $10 to see any more of em.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

folly:

1 : lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight
2 a : criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct b obsolete : EVIL, WICKEDNESS; especially : lewd behavior
3 : a foolish act or idea

This pretty neatly covers all the stuff he's satirising.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:46 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I posted that definition as a refutation of your claim, Dr. M.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

his villain characters seem socially and politically well-aimed to me, unless you want parker posey to be a lieberman staffer or something

― geoff (gcannon), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

this argument is beside the point - the movies just suck, whether they're high satire or base parody.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

yes, I'll sign on to that so we don't dance on the head of this pin uselessly all day. (except they're just overcelebrated as opposed to flat-out sucking like the comedies you guys love on the wackyweed.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

I can't name very many comedies with fewer laughs than A Mighty Wind, but I'd almost argue that Guest's basically benign temperment (as evidenced in that J.T. story above) is the only thing saving that movie from being completely useless. None of his "satires/parodies" are merciless because he has too much a sense of mercy.

If that makes Guffman the only actually funny one and the only one I've watched more than once or twice, so be it.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, dude doesn't even have the heart to tell some of his actors, "sorry, I've got too many people in this one already, can you wait until the next one?"

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

guffman is great, best in show was funny, mighty wind was "amiable".

this one, i can't tell if i'm going to like it...but i will probably at least be amused.

― latebloomer: not to be confused with the dolphin from Seaquest DSV (latebloomer), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

I think moreso than dictionary definitions, the one thing that precludes me from wanting to call Guest's movies satires is their palpable sense of wanting to be loved by their built-in cult audience, at least in the last two movies. Most great satire, per se, doesn't give a shit about biting the hands that feed, et al.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

Well now, I have no problem with you calling them bad satires.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

(because I don't give a shit about what you think)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

Guest's lack of killer instinct (and the evidence that he's a nice fellow in the Mag profile) suggests a link that comes across in bios of sharpshooters like Groucho Marx, Peter Cook, Peter Sellers -- not especially pleasant people.

Even Spinal Tap is sentimental by refusing to allow a St. Hubbins / Tufnel split (although this is backed up by such dinosaurs clinging to each other for dear economic life, although usually to greater grosses).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry, I thought Eric was Morbius. Technically, you're not, right?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:28 (nineteen years ago)

That's a crappy thing to say about anyone.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:31 (nineteen years ago)

That Mag profile was so empty. It begins "He didn't talk much on the first day. He didn't talk much on the second day. As I understand it, he doesn't talk much most days" -- which reads as an apology for the article not being particularly insightful.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:31 (nineteen years ago)

I've read Alex Witchel before, so at least she had a strategy this time.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 November 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/nd06/christopherguest.htm

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

A satirist is at heart a sentimentalist. The problem with Guest is that he doesn't bother hiding the sentiment.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

Boy, that cuddly Juvenal, lemme tell ya.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

On weekends, he performed The Giving Tree at the local retirement home.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

"Besides all this, there is nothing sacred to his lusts: not the matron of the family, nor the maiden daughter, not the as yet unbearded son-in-law to be, not even the as yet unpolluted son; if none of these be there, he will debauch his friend's grandmother."

"That's some fine sentiments there, young feller."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

I am really glad I saw this on DVD because really it's not that funny, BUT the DVD outtakes are hysterical esp. everything involving the Monkey Ventriliquist Weather Girl Act which there is A LOT OF thankfully (Rickey Gervais interview also CLASSIC.) She really should have been the whole movie.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 23 February 2007 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

OK, that makes me sad that I just dropped off the Netflix in the mail without watching the outtakes.

I actually liked this more than I thought I would. There are stretches I kind of tuned out of, but there were also sequences I genuinely chuckled at. (I especially liked John Michael Higgins's part-Choctaw, Internet-illiterate publicist.) And a lot of the movie seemed pretty dark and cynical, which made me forgive the lack of laughs, because it seemed to be going for something a little deeper. And Guest's own character work is still impressive, from one film to the next.

― jaymc, Monday, 19 March 2007 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

I saw this, Music & Lyrics and Rocky Balboa in the course of one day and I think it definitely came bottom of the heap. The trailer is pretty representative, as far as unfunniness goes. Jennifer Coolidge was good though.

― Alba, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

Heh, turned out I liked this one.

― Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 00:01 (nineteen years ago)

So when is Catherine O'Hara going to get a starring role in something? She was way better than this movie deserved.

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

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