Waiting For Guffman

A bunch of city slickers (including cowriter-actor Eugene Levy, cowriter-director-actor Christopher Guest, and actors Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Matt Keeslar, and Lewis Arquette) have a good time ribbing middle-American yokels. The specific targets are residents of Blaine, Missouri, who are preparing a musical pageant to celebrate their town’s 150th anniversary, and the ammunition consists mainly of overwhelming condescensionwhat cornball hicks these pathetic people are, unlike the suave people playing them (most worked on This Is Spinal Tap, which set its sights somewhat higher). This 1997 comedy may be amusing if you feel a pressing need to feel superior to somebody, but the aim is too broad and scattershot to add up to much beyond an acknowledgment of small-town desperationsomething Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis did much better back in the 20s and 30s. R, 84 min. (JR)

This entry was posted in Featured Texts. Bookmark the permalink.