There is no name more synonymous with the mockumentary style thanChristopher Guest. He was the director who shot the genre into the public eye.
His first film,Waiting for Guffman, was groundbreaking in its intention and a light-hearted look at small-town life and the strange world of local theater. It remains his best.
Who Is Christopher Guest?
Christopher Guest is the leader of an informal troupe of actors whose focus is long-form, character-based improvisation. Guest himself has been involved in this type of acting since starring in director Rob Reiner’s 1984 opusThis Is Spinal Tap. Guest played Nigel Tufnel opposite soon-to-be long-time collaborators Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. The three portrayed 1980s British rock stars whose careers have not been going according to plan.
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The film had a basic script butwas largely improvisedby the three main actors. Their goal was to make the characters as well-rounded as possible and ensure that they could answer even the most basic questions from that character’s standpoint.
Guest would go on to both star and direct in multiple ensemble films that often included McKean and Shearer. These films includedBest In Show, For Your Consideration,A Mighty Wind, and his first, 1996’sWaiting for Guffman.
What Is Waiting For Guffman?
Guest decided that his film would be based around a small town’s annual play, which, this particular year, would be celebrating the town’s 150th anniversary. Normally a smaller affair, the director, Corky St. Clair (played by Guest), has decided to invite an eminent theater critic to review the play in the hopes that it goes to Broadway.
The play, Red, White, and Blaine, is the retelling of the town’s history in a mostly-musical format. Corky has written and directed the play and wants it to be the best one the town has ever seen.
For this reason, he holds an open casting call and decides to bring on his two mainstays, local travel agents Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willardand Catherine O’Hara), Local dentist Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy), Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), Mechanic Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar), and local weirdo-turned-narrator Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette).
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Due to Corky deciding to focus primarily on directing, he brings in Lloyd Miller (Bob Balaban) to lead the band and head up music. The two clash nearly immediately and are in a constant state of back-and-forth aggression as the play comes to fruition.
The play itself is a set of short songs, each of which highlights facts about the town of Blaine, Missouri. It starts with early settlers who thought they’d arrived at the Pacific Ocean and simply stopped. The town then becomes the stool capital of the world, the fact that the river is getting too high, that nothing ever happens in the town, fear of the war, and a visit by aliens who bring them good news from Mars. It is an unmitigated festival of blah, but the resident actors are trying their hardest in front of a small gym crowd.
At intermission, the reserved seat for Mort Guffman is filled by a man who seems very intent on the show. The cast is very excited but continues with their bravado and charm to make their show the best they can. Afterward, in the glow of their success, Corky brings the man backstage to learn if he enjoyed the show. It turns out that he did, but that he is not, in fact,Mort Guffman Broadway critic, but Roy Loomis (Paul Benedict), an out-of-towner who came to see the show. The cast is visibly upset, and we fade to black.
The film contains an epilogue of the different characters as their lives have progressed since the play. Dr. Pearl has given up dentistry for his own brand of entertaining retirees, the Albertsons have moved to Hollywood, where they are having minimal success in commercials, and Libby Mae is working at a Dairy Queen in Alabama. Corky has returned to New York City to open a kitschy novelty shop with strange entertainment-based products such as Remains of the Day lunchboxes.
Why Is It His Best?
Waiting for Guffmanis a pivotal film in comedy due to the fact that it brought together so many talented improvisers, and so many of them went on to great careers. Most notable are Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, who ledthe showSchitt’s Creekfrom 2015-2020. The two have been frequent Guest collaborators and have proven their chemistry time and again.
Guest himself used the film to springboard his various ideas for his succession of projects, each of which brought in more talent and tackled bigger projects. Although many people are aware ofBest In Show(“that dog movie”), many are unaware of this hidden gem.
Guest deserves much of the credit for figuring out the format necessary to successfully create thistype of project, andWaiting For Guffmanis the first place he truly put this format on screen.
