Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Something to Consider

Christopher Guest is coming out with a new movie this month called For Your Consideration. In it, three actors learn their respective performances in the film Home for Purim, a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz. Though not quite a mocumentary like Guest's previous films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), it does have the whole gang with one notable addition: Ricky Gervais from the British version of The Office. And while some of Guest's regulars are pretty annoying, others are hilarious (ie Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer).

Guest is one of the few directors whose work I look forward to. In fact, the best characters in his films are often played by Guest himself. He really is a versatile actor (those of you unfamiliar with him, might know him better as the evil Count Tyrone Rugen, a.k.a. the six-fingered man, from The Princess Bride). He has also shown he has musical skills as he often writes the songs for his movies. Speaking of which, something I have always found funny is that the three members of Spinal Tap (Guest, Shearer, Michael McKean), a band created for Rob Riener's 1984 "rockumentary" This is Spinal Tap (Tag line: "Does for rock and roll what The Sound of Music did for hills") are the same three members of the folk music group The Folksmen from 2003's A Mighty Wind. What's more is that both groups sort of became real, doing concerts and musical appearances. Spinal Tap even went on tour and released an album (besides the movie soundtrack) called Break Like the Wind.

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