Comedy

Christopher Guest has enjoyed poking fun at many different groups of people, from folk singers (A Mighty Wind), to dog lovers (Best in Show), to community theater (Waiting for Guffman), to a heavy metal band (This is Spinal Tap).  Here Guest takes on those ripe for parody – the entertainment industry, and the fickle and surprising effects the word Oscar can cause amongst them.

For Your Consideration
3 & 1/2 Stars

The latest from writer/director Christopher Guest is a scathing look at the entertainment industry.  Though it seems to lack the heart of some of Guest’s better work, the jokes are deliciously droll and derisive.

A new film titled “Home for Purim” gets some unexpected Oscar buzz on the Internet (“the one with e-mail”) for aging actress Marilyn Hack (Catherine O’Hara), commercial actor Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer), and comedian turned actress Callie Webb (Parker Posey) whose one woman show, “No Penis Intended,” was described distinctly as “a humorless romp.”

All of a sudden these struggling actors are the focus of interviews, speculation, and studio intervention to try and convince the writers (Bob Balaban, Michael McKean) to make the film “less Jewish” to appeal to a broader audience.  And Jennifer Coolidge provides an example of what Guest believes the role and importance of a producer to be.

The film sinks its teeth into Hollywood’s self-importance and just rips it to shreds.  Particularly vicious, and amusing, are Fred Willard and Jane Lynch as Entertainment Tonight/Access Hollywood “reporters,” and the writer’s public appearance on The Charlie Rose Show (which might be the best scene of the film).

The major problem with the film is every situation and every person is rife for satire and so become walking punchlines.  Unlike some of Guest’s previous films, we don’t get a sense that he cares for these characters, and so why should we?  Still, he manages to put them in humorous, and sometimes near perfect, moments to laugh disdainfully with glee at their misfortune.  Cruel?  Without a doubt, but damn funny too.

It’s not Guest’s best work, but the film contains many good jokes and gags and some bitterly funny parodies of what has been come to be known as “entertainment news.”  Fans of his other films will enjoy themselves while others might wonder if the writer/director hasn’t chosen a subject too easy for him to mock, and too hard for him to care about.