A Mighty Wind Movie Review:


Director Christopher Guest and company are back with another hysterical mockumentary called "A Mighty Wind," and this time the spoofed subject is 60's folk music.

A mockumentary is more of less a fictional documentary film that pokes fun at a certain subject. In 1984, Guest and his co-writers/actors splashed onto the scene poking fun a heavy metal rock, under the direction of Rob Reiner, in "This Is Spinal Tap," which has been declared the film that conceived the mockumentary genre. Guest then kept the same cast/crew and continued making films of the genre. In 1997, there was "Waiting for Guffman," which looked into the realm of theater in a small town, and in 2000, there was "Best in Show," which looked into the world of dog shows. Now comes along "A Mighty Wind," which is a laugh-a-minute look into folk music.

Shot in the documentary style, the film follows many witty characters as they come together for a tribute concert for a legendary folk music producer named Irving Steinbloom. The film picks up following the death of Mr. Steinbloom and his son, Jonathan (Balban) deciding to get together his father's three most memorable 60's folk bands together for the concert which will take place at Carnegie Hall. There are The Folksmen, who are three aging musicians (Guest, Shearer, and McKean) that reflect to the audience their amusing days of distribution and releasing records that didn't have any holes in them. The New Main Street Singers are a blend of veteran and new folk musicians that nowadays get gigs on cruise lines and at theme parks. Finally, there is Mitch and Mickey, who were icons in the 60's like Sonny & Cher, but haven't spoken to one another in years due to a bad breakup. The audience follows these three groups and other minor parties on a comical journey to pay tribute to their legendary producer and the fans of folk music.
This film is just brilliant, it is so funny. I haven't laughed as much as I did through "A Mighty Wind," since "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." If the whole mockumentary concept isn't intriguing enough, it is an absolute treat to watch Guest, as well as the other cast members which include Michael McKean, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, and Fred Willard, interact and pull off scenes by mostly improvisation. Besides directing, producing, and acting in the film, Guest also co-wrote the screenplay with Eugene Levy, which is just a blueprint for the actors. "A Mighty Wind" is probably 70% or more improvised by its actors. I took a semester of acting improvisation in college and I am probably not the first to say it isn't easy. The acting ensemble also had great chemistry, in which most of them have work on all of Guest's previous films. It seems that the ensemble is a sort of a comradarie like "Saturday Night Live," and all can easily step into a new character or setting without missing a beat. Each know their surroundings, know how to deliver to the audience, and more than anything know their character as well as the other characters of the film.

The music is equally as important to the film's creditability and success. The folk songs where written by Guest, Levy, McKean, and other members of the cast. The songs themselves are believably constructed pieces from the characters that are singing them. Not since "O Brother, Where Art Thou" have I seen original music be so crucial to a film.

"A Mighty Wind" is a gem of a comedy and it is exactly what one would expect in a mockumentary from Christopher Guest. One aspect that is different from Guest's other three mockumentaries is the light drama between Levy and O'Hara's Mitch and Mickey, in which I thought it worked well.

Some audience members might not like the dry sense of humor that "A Mighty Wind" and past works by Guest inhabit. In my opinion, the style, content, originality, and execution of the films including "A Mighty Wind" are absolutely fantastic. The witty and obtuse characters, the enjoyable music, the constant laughs, and pure entertainment value are what make "A Mighty Wind" a delight to watch.

Grade: A-

Joseph Tucker


Christopher Guest is turning into a one-man mockumentary factory, after starring in Spinal Tap then directing Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and now this gem, which returns to music to both make fun of and pay homage to 1960s folk music. In the film, Jonathan Steinbloom (Balaban) is setting up a huge reunion concert in memory of his folk music promoter father. And he scores a coup when he gets three top groups to appear on stage: The New Main Street Singers may all be replacements (only Dooley remains from the original line-up), but with a leader like Terry (Higgins) and a manager like Mike (Willard) they're as perky and annoyingly harmonic as ever! The Folksmen (Guest, McKean and Shearer, aka Spinal Tap) were never as big as they should have been, but are happy to get back on stage to perform their one hit. And it's going to take a minor miracle for Mitch & Mickey (Levy and O'Hara) to reunite, since their bitter split nearly 30 years ago ... and their trademark song includes a tender kiss.

From Levy and Guest's script outline, this fantastic ensemble improvises their characters brilliantly as ever. This film is more purely in a documentary style than Best in Show, and it plays completely straight. The humour is very dry, only occasionally absurd, and always extremely close to the bone as it both ridicules and eulogises a type of music that's often laughably silly. Guest weaves in home movies and record cover art that are so authentic they hurt! And the cast add telling details--hilarious bits of comedy that hit the target with deadly glee. Standouts include Lynch's clean-cut Singer, completely unashamed of her porn star past or her loony cult present; Coolidge's deliriously dim euro-pudding PR agent; Willard's has-been TV star moron; and of course the divine trio of McKean, Guest and Shearer, who should by law be required to make a movie together every year. And there are two big surprises: First, the music is extremely well-written and performed by the cast, complete with insanely complex folk arrangements--all of which really spring to life during the concert at the end, which they really performed live before an audience! And second, the film has a surprising emotional resonance in Mitch & Mickey's story, played to perfection by Levy and O'Hara in such a way that it's always both hilarious and moving. Inspired.

Rich Cline

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