New Guest film worth your "Consideration" (HAHAHA I'M AN A&E EDITOR)

Hahahaha Ryan is going to be in Advanced Fiction Writing with me. Oh, man.

I'm determined to post more often. I nearly reached Achewood-like proportions of dead time between posts. Speaking of which, read Roast Beef's blog. KraftWerk Thanksgiving. Brilliant.

Here are some other things going on:

I have an opinion article due tomorrow. Not sure what it'll be about. Something crazy, I think.
I asked some of my professors for recommendation letters. And I have to write personal statements. If there's one thing I hate (talking about), it's myself.
Joe's play is less than a week away.
Meeting for UD Monologues tomorrow night. I'm one of the directors.
One more wave of papers before the semester is over. Blah.
Aaaaand I'm really tired.

Let me give you a quick review of the new movie For Your Consideration. I saw it with my parents, Joe and Teresa over the Thanksgiving break up in Action, Ohio.

If you know the more recent Christopher Guest movies (Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and Best in Show), then you know the Guest style of filmmaking and sense of humor.

For Your Consideration, Guest's take on Hollywood period films and particularly the Oscars, is pretty well in line with those other movies. It chronicles the making of Home for Purim, about a Jewish family, and the Oscar buzz surrounding a few of the lead actors.

All the favorite actors are there: Catherine O'Hara is a middle-aged actress secretly dying for an Oscar; Harry Shearer is a vapid, smiley actor-turned-commercial-mascot-turned-actor; Eugene Levy is his pathetic, well-meaning agent; Christopher Guest is the airheaded director; John Michael Higgins (think Mentok the Mind-taker) is an overly confident publicist; Parker Posey is a young actress with a background in standup non-comedy (her one-woman show was No Penis Intended). But Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler's mom, that is) steals the show as the producer of the film. Coming off her role as a ditzy gold digger in Best in Show, Coolidge delivers the best single lines in the film ("It reminds me of my family. And I hate my family.").

While some of the familiar actors were relegated to smaller roles--particularly Michael Hitchcock and Don Lake as film reviewers and Bob Balaban and Michael McKean as the screenwriters--they were also very good. Balaban and McKean have their time to shine about halfway through the film, when marketing people and Guest as director start tampering with the script.

If you've seen all of the Guest movies, let me rank this one for you.

Waiting for Guffman - you really can't expect to beat this one. I like it a lot. It moves a little slowly, but it has the strongest, most ridiculous characters and songs.
For Your Consideration - nearly tied with
Best in Show - because they both have good characters but the jokes might be a little too subtle or smile-rather-than-laugh jokes.
A Mighty Wind - I just don't care for the Eugene Levy-Catherine O'Hara subplot too much. And last is
This Is Spinal Tap - although the problem might be that I haven't seen this in a long time.

Here's the bottom line: I think these movies are way, way funnier than anything Jack Black could turn out. And, judging from Elf and some other recent Will Farrell movies, I consider Guest's movies better because the plot is not painfully bad, nor is it used simply as a vehicle for jokes.

Grade: B+

Advantages: some hilarious jokes, great improvisation, good characters.

Disadvantages: no character quite reaches the Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, or Christopher Guest characters from Waiting for Guffman; doesn't use Willard, Balaban, McKean, or even Guest as much as I would like to see.

That's all for now. I promise to post again soon.

Love,

Steve