For Your Consideration is, sadly enough, the weakest of the string of improvisational movies made by Chrstopher Guest, which appears now to have peaked with Best in Show, the highlight of which was that Parker Posey underwent actual orthodontia as part of establishing her character. Consideration underscores the fact that all of these films have focused on an odd corner of show business, but by shining its light on something dreadfuly familiar -- the Miramax-style quality film designed to earn Oscar's notice -- it brings out the fact that the film-within-a-film is so bad that it's never believable for a second: A World War II-era movie on Jews in Valdosta, Georgia, the daughter of whom brings her lesbian partner home? And the son of whom is so badly cast that looks like he's pushing 40 despite the fact that he's still living at home? For these movies to work, you have to enter the world the create, but Consideration kept pushing me away.
And while Guest has always poked fun at his characters, here he's downright mean to them. And again, in not believable ways: Are we really supposed to buy that a chat-show host would track down someone who was not nominated for an Academy Award in a coffee shop the morning of the announcement?
Of course, none of that would matter if the film was actually funny. It's not.
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2 comments:
thanks for the consumer info, sad as it is.
how do you rate A Mighty Wind? Is the drop-off between Best In Show and Mighty Wind the biggest reversal of comic fortune in recent years? Considering he got the whole cast back together, it's kind of like if the Spinal Tap got back together to make Cops And Robbersons...or if the Beatles followed up Abbey Road with Red Rose Speedway but didn't break up first.
Well, "A Mighty Wind" is a lot better than "For Your &C.," which in your mind is probably like the hypothetical Beatles followed up "Red Rose Speedway" with "Son of Albert."
"Wind" was kind of fun, I thought, if a step down, in large part because of the astonishing and criminally underused Jane Lynch, and because it was great to see Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara together. In the new one, Jane Lynch has only an extended cameo as a talk show host, and Catherine and Eugene don't have a single scene together.
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