Waiting for Guffman (guest)

MOVIE: Waiting for Guffman

GUEST: The Lovely Venus Infers

NUTSHELL: Fictional (I hope) town of Blaine, Missouri (The Stool Capital of the World) mounts a City Council-sponsored musical tribute to the sesquicentennial (“That’s 150 years”) of its founding by geographically challenged explorer Blain Fabin and its pre-Roswell alien visitation.

GOOD THINGS: Christopher Guest’s hairpiece, Catherine O’Hara’s mall bangs-as-emotional barometer, Eugene Levy’s lazy eye, “Midnight at the Oasis” as an audition piece (I can never hear this song often enough and neither can you), Bob Balaban’s exquisitely Napoleonesque slow burn, “Dances With Stumpy”

BAD THINGS: None.

FEATURES: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban, Paul Benedict, the late Lewis Arquette (father of Rosanna, Patricia, David, Richmond and that drag queen), Larry Miller, Paul Dooley, a bare-bones script and masses of inspired improvised dialogue

UNCOMFORTABLE MOMENTS: Blue eyeshadow and Dairy Queen job notwithstanding, you don’t REALLY want to see Parker Posey as Libby Mae Brown grilling a forlorn chicken wing in a trailer park, fanning the flames with a paper plate as she smokes a cigarette and discusses her bleak future if the show does not go on. Or maybe you do. And if you don’t experience a few moments of genuine grief when the cast discovers who’s really been sitting in the reserved front-row seat, you’re just mean.

NOTABLE: Corky’s mysterious wife Bonnie, Ron and Sheila’s thrillingly Bergmanesque marriage, Mrs. Allan Pearl, Corky’s ineffably bad choreography, Lloyd’s heartbreakingly decent musical overture and conducting, the orchestra whose members double and triple on various instruments, Corky’s choice of music to bathe by

BEST PART: This movie is nothing BUT best parts.

BEST LINE: “Then I just hate you, and I hate your ASS FACE!” “I know how the Kennedys must feel.” “Our budget for the entire year is $15,000, and that includes swimming!” “It vas the smell of salt wah-teh!”

CROWNS: 5 out of 5 DQ Brown Derbies (Wow! – Ed.)