There's a good reason some talent remains undiscovered
Waiting for Guffman is a new comedy directed by Christopher Guest and produced by Karen Murphy, both of whom were among the creative forces on the comic mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. It is a funny look at the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the creative citizens of Blaine, Missouri USA, as they prepare a pageant celebrating the 150th anniversary of their fair city.
A lavish musical review Red, white and Blaine will be written, directed, costumed and choreographed by Corky St Clair (Christopher), who is hopeful that a theatrical achievement such as this may be his ticket back to Broadway. Corky has designed a show that will salute Blaine's historical highlights - the founding of the little town with a big heart, its reputation as the stool capital of the world and, not to be forgotten, Blaine's UFO encounter/pot luck dinner of 1946.
FYI: The title is a pun on Waiting for Godot, a famous play by Samuel Beckett about two men who spend the whole time waiting for someone who never arrives
Special Agent Matti
Spinal Tap attacks and obliterates small towns, community theatre and talentless amateurs with delusions of grandeur. Faaabulous!
Community theatre is one of the blights on society. It is inevitably produced by people who could never make it in anything approaching the real world. Their audience consists of people who think it is amazing that the actors can remember all those lines (they are still amazed by the special effects in the original Flash Gordon). To see these people so thoroughly trashed in a film is a joy and delight.
The documentary-style just serves to enhance the tragedic nature of community theatre, its hideousness, its vileness. This is one of the funniest and most vicious films I have seen in a long time, there are no punches pulled, the ugliness inside these (fictional) people will make your skin crawl. I loved it.
White trash caravan dwellers to white trash fast food restaurants to white trash matching tracksuit wearers. They are out there. Be very afraid.
M (Low level coarse language)
84 minutes (1:24 hours)
Film: 18 September 1997 - Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth
Film: 2 October 1997 - Melbourne
DVD retail: 12 June 2002
