A Mighty Wind

Bloggers note:  this review first appeared on my personal blog, Life of Ando in 2007.  I liked it so much I thought it deserved a new audience.


I love mockumentaries and nobody does them better than Christopher Guest. I loved Spinal Tap and Best in Show was great. The characters are always so earnest in their absurdity and the actors playing them, always the same troupe, are pitch perfect, whether they’re a metal band, dog show contestants and judges or in the case of A Mighty Wind, 1960′s era folk singers. Satire is great fun.

In this case the skewerees are three folk music groups preparing for a reunion concert in honor of the recently departed folk band leader and promoter, Irving Steinbloom. There are the oh-so-sticky-sweet and obnoxiously perky ”neuftet” (which apparently means group of nine) the New Mainstreet Singers, with their sweater-vests and cheesy grins. The New Mainstreet Singers are a resuscitation of the original Mainstreet Singers who had there heyday in the decade between 1960 and 1970, in which they cranked out thirty albums worth of toe-tapping, sing-a-long, saccriny goodness. The new constitution of the singers consists of one original member and eight others, most who are way to young to even know what folk music is. They are lead by a husband and wife team of perma-grins (Jane Lynch and John Michael Higgins) who belong to a religious sect known as W.I.N.C., Witches In Natures Color, which they described thusly:

That last line slayed me.

Then there are The Folksmen, which reunites the old Spinal Tap trio of Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest, only this time as a Kingston Trio-esque threesome. They are hilarious (obviously). The scene of their reunion BBQ is a comedic inspiration.  Here's just a taste:

The brilliance of the script and the acting is they perfectly capture these corny little moments we’ve all seen on various documentaries or even in our own lives. The silly little greeting phrases and awkward hugs. Most of my favorite scenes involved these three discussing something about their act, such as what outfits they would wear (“To do then now would be retro. To do then then was very now-tro, if you will.”). Their big hit back in the day was a little ditty about a roadside diner called Joe’s. Great song.

The final group are sweetheart tandem Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O’hara). They were the Sonny and Cher of their time, scoring a smash hit with the touching tune, Kiss at the End of the Rainbow. They were more than just onstage lovebirds, until a terrible breakup sent them on their separate ways, Mickey to marriage with the president of a bladder control industry president (the company is called Sure Flo, named after his mother Florence), and Mitch to a crippling depression leaving him a stuttering shell of his former self. Side splittingly played of course. These two actors are so good together. Their comedic timing is impeccable and they have a realish chemistry that compels you to like their characters. They’re so good in fact that you almost think Mitch and Mickey were an actual couple.

A Mighty Wind is not as biting as previous Christopher Guest movies. Part of that is that most of the characters are has-beens and they know it, so they have that underdog vibe going for them. There are exceptions of course. Fred Williard plays an irritatingly hilarious talent agent who had his fifteen minutes in front of the camera years ago and still laughs at his own tired jokes.  The movie may be softer-hearted than Guest's previous, but it hasn’t lost any of the funny.

All the songs were written by Guest and friends and are at once excellent and insufferable. They capture the sound and spirit of folk from that era perfectly. Or at least I think they do, judging by the Time-Life Treasury of Folk infomercials I’ve watched over the years.  Actually, though grunge and hip-hop were the musical stylings of choice in my youth, my car radio was more often than not tuned to the oldies station.  So, I've got a pretty discerning ear when it comes to music of the folk era and just about every song from A Mighty Wind could be slipped into the rotation and no one would probably notice they sound so authentic.

My only complaint would be that there is a moment near the end when it departs a little too much from the mockumentary storytelling and suddenly seems like a more conventional narrative.  It's a brief departure, but it doesn't jibe with the style of the rest of the movie and is sort of a cop out to get the emotional payoff they were looking for.  It's a minor complaint though, and certainly forgivable.

One of the coolest things on the DVD is in the special features they have clips of the all the groups playing as if they were on a 1960′s variety show like Ed Sullivan or American Bandstand, complete with lip syncs. Also, they added the final concert from the movie, as if you were watching it on PBS. They shot it with TV camera’s and with a real audience. I don’t know if they shot this simultaneously as the movie footage or if they did the concert twice. Either way, it was a clever idea.

Great performances, great--in its way--music, and one of my favorite comedies.