Overall Rating
 Awesome: 32%
Worth A Look: 40.8%
Average: 20.8%
Pretty Bad: 2.4%
Total Crap: 4%
11 reviews, 59 user ratings
|
|
| Mighty Wind, A |
by Brian McKay
"Spinal Folk breaks like the wind across whitebread America"
|
Once again, Christopher Guest and company manage to zero in on an obscure cross-segment of white middle America, mimic it with uncanny accuracy, then lambaste it thoroughly. Fans of BEST IN SHOW will be happy to see most (if not all) of the players from that film returning here, including the indispensable Fred Willard as the hilarious motor-mouthed dolt he usually plays in Guest’s films.As if the venues of small town community theater and dog shows weren’t obscure enough, A Mighty Wind plunges us into a world most of us probably know nothing about – the Folk Music industry. When a prominent agent in the industry dies, his three adult children decide to put together a benefit concert in his honor. After pulling some strings, they manage to bring together three legendary folk bands – two of which disbanded years ago.
The only band still together is the “New Main Street Singers”, a nine-piece ensemble of mostly kids, led by a husband and wife team who are surviving members of the original band. They give the group a cultish flair, with matching uniforms and their own home-made religion that is based on the vibrancy of colors or some such nonsense. As usual, one of the females in the script is a reformed slut. In Best of Show it was Catherine O’Hara’s character, the former truck stop waitress who keeps encountering the ghosts of former one night stands. This time, New Main Street Singers mother figure Laurie Bohner (Jane Lynch) is the ex-ho, who reveals with a beaming smile that before she joined the group she did porno – and that she usually did “things that the other girls wouldn’t do”. Meanwhile, husband Terry (John Michael Higgins, whose character was flamboyantly gay and fastiduously funny in Best in Show) admits that “There was abuse in my family growing up . . . but it was musical in nature”. Generally considered as sellouts by the other acts, the New Main Street Singers croon and posture with Pepsodent grins, like some "Lawrence Welk Show" act on Ecstasy.
Also added to the bill are “The Folksmen”, consisting of Spinal Tap vets Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael Mckean. Although their characters are more subdued here, like some corn fed, cardigan-wearing, sedated Tap alter-ego from a parallel universe, they still deliver a consistent stream of laughs and a respectable array of musicianship. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself subconsciously tapping a toe during the musical numbers. Yes, the music is wholesome and corny, but it’s also insidiously catchy.
Finally topping the bill are Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O’Hara, who I hereby declare is solid MILF material). They were the sweethearts of the genre back in the 70’s – until their divorce, and Mitch’s subsequent slide into depression and reclusiveness. Now Mickey is married to a medical supply salesman and the bug-eyed and slow-talking Mitch still looks like he’s half out of his mind, but finally dealing with things.
When the three acts finally come together, there is the expected amount of phony freindliness and dressing room back-biting, although sadly it is never taken to the acerbic and acidic level of Best in Show (this movie could have used something like Parker Posey’s infamous dog toy rant). However, differences are quickly put aside and minor crises (like Mitch wandering off just before he and Mickey are supposed to go on stage) are resolved in time for them to get their hootenanny on and come together for a grand musical finale’. And although the humor in A Mighty Wind isn’t quite as sharp or punchy as in Guest and company’s previous efforts, it’s still consistently, and often hysterically, funny. Some of it may be an acquired taste, like Levy's clueless monotone wide eyed and perplexed character, which some critics have panned. Okay, look - not his funniest role by far, I'll admit. But at least it's something different from his usual nebbish and good-natured father figure character. The guy tried something new, and for the most part, it works. And while the humor may be more subdued, the innuendos are as frequent and ripe as ever - especially at the end of the title track when all the players exuberantly exclaim, “There’s a mighty wind a-blowin’, it’s blowing you and me!”While A MIGHTY WIND may not be Guest et al’s best effort to date, it’s definitely not a shabby one. Fans of the troupe’s odd humor and scathingly accurate caricatures will find much to be pleased about here. If you really hate folk music, even parodies thereof, then you may find things a bit dry during the musical numbers. But barring any such deep-seated aversion, even the weakest of those segments should put a smile on your face long enough to tide you over until the next guffaw.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=7217&reviewer=258
originally posted: 06/12/03 17:34:01
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2003 SXSW Film Festival. For more in the 2003 South By Southwest Film Festival series, click here.
|
 |
USA
16-Apr-2003 (PG-13)
DVD: 23-Sep-2003
UK
N/A
Australia
24-Jul-2003
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
