Episode 711: Waiting for Guffman (1996)

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Speak Film and Enter a podcast where we review

and rank movies.

I'm Nate.

And I'm Dylan and I'm Adam.

And today we've got our first movie for the month of March.

Yes.

Dylan picked first this time and he chose Waiting for Guffman.

This time I believe we're going back to the 90s after our year of the 90s in 2025.

So Dylan or Adam, let's go at you first.

What is it about?

Yes.

From 96, an aspiring director and the marginally talented amateur cast of a hokey small town

Missouri musical production go overboard when they learn that someone from Broadway will

be in attendance.

Yeah.

So Dylan, why Waiting for Guffman?

Well, we had just waited too long.

It was in the list for the 90s year and it just was never chosen, didn't come up.

But you know, I like Christopher Guest's other films.

I like his style of comedy.

This is one that had just always kind of been out there and just taken the time to watch

it yet.

When it came up for my options, I felt like, you know what, let's just go ahead and do it.

And I didn't want your dad to have to endure yet another month of us not watching Waiting

for Guffman.

Yeah.

I was going to say I had never seen it either and someone who grew up with two theater

parents to varying degrees, but still call them that.

It was a stain on my movie watching career that I had never seen Waiting for Guffman.

And you know, I'm a big fan of Best in Show.

We did.

This is spinal tap earlier, which was directed by Christopher Guest, but he was in it and

it kind of kicked off this style of comedy movie.

So yeah, I was glad when you finally picked it because it felt like, yeah, we've had kind

of been waiting for like a year to finally watch this one.

So passing on it again, would have really felt like, why did we bother including it at

all?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Once we did spinal tap, I actually, like I talked about this on the round of, I went through

and watched Best in Show again.

And so like, this is like the further continuation for me, I'm like, yeah, more of it.

I'm going to have to run just the rest of his catalog.

I'm already on a roll.

Yeah, you're in that, that headspace already.

So perfect.

Yeah, Adam's going to reach out to criterion himself and ask if he can curate a mockumentary

box set.

Hey, if they take it, I mean, I could see that.

Yeah.

So until you ask, waiting for government at a glance from 1996 directed by Christopher Guest,

who was the six fingered man in the Princess bride for those of you who maybe aren't familiar

with his name.

He also directed Best in Show, which is definitely his most popular movie and really just became

maybe known for these mockumentaries, along with waiting for government, also a mighty

wind.

And for your consideration, just kind of picks a different area where people are very enthusiastic

about something.

There's like a small community.

He can like sort of gently skewer and kind of needle and a poke in the side of the ribs

a little bit.

But most of them are still done with degrees of love for the characters as well, even

if you kind of spend a lot of time feeling like you're laughing at them.

Yeah.

By the end, you really feel like you want to laugh with them.

Mm-hmm.

It's had a $4 million budget and only made $2.9 million at the box office.

So this would have really fit right in with our year of the 90s.

True.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can wear it as a badge of honor.

Yeah.

Pretty well reviewed across the board and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.4 on IMDB and a 3.8

on butter box.

So comfortably above average everywhere.

It was nominated for three independent spirit awards the year came out.

Best feature, best male lead for Christopher Guest and best screenplay for Christopher Guest

and Eugene Levy did not win any of those awards.

And this is, this was very surprising to me.

I remembered seeing this a couple years ago when I found it again today looking up kind

of accolades for this movie.

It's number 79 on Variety's list from 2022 of the hundred greatest movies of all time.

It's number 179.

Yeah.

Amazing.

That's completely concur, completely.

It's mean.

Number 80 is Pixote, which was one of the movies that we have in our list for this year,

which was one of the three that I had to choose from for this month, which I ultimately

decided on Salarist, what Pixote is on there.

And number 78 is John Deelman.

Oh, okay, okay.

It wasn't quite good enough to beat out the three hours of chores, but not quite.

Not quite.

That's great though.

Yeah.

And just for reference, this list does have Psycho at number one.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

Outside the box.

Yeah.

It just feels like a movie that kind of has a little bit of a cult following.

Like I know my parents talked about it.

I think my mom loves it.

And yeah, just kind of one of those, if you know, you know, yeah.

It feels a little bit like office space in that regard for not as big, obviously, but

the kind of mic judge, like, let's do a satire of working in an office at like a tech

company or something.

Yeah.

And this feels like it's got elements of that, obviously office space isn't a mock

documentary or anything, but there's kind of that that skewering and needling of very

specific experiences.

Yes.

That's what I've got for Atta Glantz, subscribe, and you can join our theater troupe.

Indeed.

Maybe we'll be a part of it.

We might even let you sing, but that's up to Dylan.

Mm-hmm.

Music director.

Yeah.

And if you do subscribe or follow us, whatever the term is, wherever you're following the

podcast, you will be notified when we release new episodes.

And our next episode will be, well, our next episode I think is going to be my top 10 movies

of 2025.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Are you excited for that?

I think you have one more that you want to see before you.

Yeah.

We were.

I didn't know when it was finally going to come out in Minnesota, so I was prepared

to do it without seeing Sarat, but because I'm seeing that tomorrow, you know, finally

arrived just in time to potentially make the list.

And that is a movie that's nominated for Best International Feature.

And I've seen all the best picture nominees and all but one of the best international

feature nominees.

So getting to Sarat will be good for me before doing the list to see if it'll make my

top 10 or not.

There will be a ton of honorable inventions on this list as well, because as I've mentioned

to you guys and on the roundup a couple times, 2025 was an amazing year for movies and the

best and deepest since 2019.

So I'll have a lot of great movies to talk about in our next episode, which timing wise

coming out just before the Oscars, I think is good as well.

People kind of a quick recap of what we thought was good, but sticking with waiting for

Guffman, opening statements, Dylan, we'll start with you.

Yeah, I'll go first.

I did choose it.

So waiting for Guffman was not what I expected.

I know that all of guest comedies are about, like you mentioned, kind of people pursuing

their passion, kind of this niche community, they give it all up for this thing that they

love and it's very human.

And I felt like this, waiting for Guffman was slightly different because the ensemble

cast were all like amateurs and as opposed to like spinal tap or best in show or a mighty

win, where it's like they are professional, they're a band, they made it or like, yeah,

they go to all these dog shows.

This is their life.

This was different where it's like, no, these are normal people, but this is like their

one time to like do something.

So that was a little different perspective.

I also thought it was a little different how we have more of a main character in this one

than the other ones.

I think, you know, Korki is definitely the main character of this movie.

And what that got for me was I didn't really have the laugh out loud comedic high points

that the other films had, but I, the musical performance at the end and just kind of the

human moments had me just kind of smiling and just kind of like, like I liked the characters

and related to them.

And so it was less, it was more human moments over like outrageous comedic moments for

me.

That was kind of my experience.

Did you, this is your first watch, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Did you end up watching this alone?

I know.

I watched it with Anna.

Okay.

Because I think like that, I think that changes.

I think comedies in general, I think we can all agree, like watching comedies with people

is definitely better than watching them alone because you get more of those like, oh,

that's a human moment.

That's nice as opposed to being like that laugh out loud because it's, you know, less

in a group.

Yeah.

It's more in a group with people.

I mean, I will say she was feeling under the weather.

So she like had a fever and yeah, but may have slightly contributed.

I don't want to throw her into the bus at all.

But no, it just didn't, yeah, not as many.

I didn't like laugh out loud.

Oh my God, that was hilarious, but I did kind of, I felt the, the hard felt connection

with the characters a little more.

They seem a little more real than some of the other Christopher guests ones.

So that was my, that was my experience.

Okay.

Adam, how about you?

I have a, I mean, kind of what Dylan had mentioned about all of Christopher guests movies.

I think I just felt it a little bit more in this one because of the, the kind of the twist

he was talking about where it's, these are non-professionally their amateurs.

Taking ordinary absurd, taking the ordinary absurd and showing its binalities and universality

is a superpower and that is Christopher guests superpower.

One of the funniest films I've ever seen.

Okay.

I had those laugh out loud moments.

I had those quiet, like, reservations of people and like, it felt like one of those movies

much to me, like, airplane where there is a joke every, like if you're looking, yeah,

a joke out of cadence that's just like a rapid fire and like, there's always a comment

at like right before we cut to something else or switch scenes that ends up being just

like, there's cheeky little comment that if you're paying close enough attention or like

you're really wrapped in it will probably hit pretty hard, but otherwise it feels fairly

innocuous, which is why it's so easy to miss.

Like, I feel like Anchorman has a lot of things like that too.

So like, it's those types of comedies that I feel like this fits in.

I mean, I just compared it to airplane and Anchorman.

I think probably the funniest comedy of all time and then the funniest comedy of our generation

growing up.

So I don't know.

I really liked it.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

I'm on the kick, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I agree with both of you.

I think I'm a little closer to Adam where I thought this movie was really, really funny.

And what I had written down for my opening statement was just a funny and charming look at

small town life.

There is more of a like full on community feel to this largely because of the nature of

what this play is.

It's like the whatever anniversary of this town and quirky St. Clair, amazing name has been

hired to put on this production, which I love so much that it's an original musical.

Yeah.

Of the history of this just like weird little town in Missouri.

Mm hmm.

I said this while I was watching.

I was like, this is just like straight out of Pawnee.

This is Parks and Rec.

Yeah.

Like, I like that a lot.

I actually.

I know a lot of Parks and Rec vibes, I felt like a lot of the jokes kind of just like

obscuring small town, Midwest, city council, people, some take it really seriously, some

don't take it seriously at all.

Some town people are really into it.

Some people do not care and you can kind of attack the comedy from both sides.

Yeah, I definitely saw, I got Parks and Rec vibes.

And I think also it's hard, it's impossible not to get kind of shits Creek vibes too with

O'Hara and Levy again, small town team of big dramatic people in a small little town.

So yeah, I got a lot of vibes from some other more modern comedies.

Yeah, absolutely.

I just think I liked the balance of how it kind of we laugh at them, but also they're

just like some really sweet moments and you reach the end and it's just like, you know

what?

It's a little weird world and that's fine.

It sort of celebrates like small dreams.

Yeah, I think it definitely and it also appreciates just doing it for your neighbors really.

Like the characters are all disappointed at the end when the guy that they thought was

Guffman, the guy is just a Broadway.

It's just like a random dude, but when you step back like that random dude, like thank

them and have an amazing time.

Yeah, it's like what he represents, like they literally were doing this for the love

of the game and they felt like there was a goal at the end.

They just didn't realize it was a different goal and they achieved something they didn't

set out to achieve, but they still achieved it.

And I think tonally it was just really smart of Christopher Guest to, you know, leading

up to the performance.

It's a lot of kind of like, oh my god, these guys kind of suck and the songs are ridiculous

and it's all like, oh god, but then it was brilliant that like when they perform it,

it's pretty good.

And the crowd really legitimately likes it.

I think this movie would end on a sour note if it was like a Napoleon Dynamite, like

everyone laughs at them and it's a dud and that's the humor.

I think it's better that they were appreciated by their neighbors legitimately.

Yeah, because this isn't, I mean, he does a really good job of finding like kind of a

middle ground where it's like, okay, this isn't a very good play.

But it's not a disaster for what it's supposed to be.

Yeah.

And it's made specifically for the people in the crowd.

And these are people who have, I mean, it seems to us no experience really or knowledge

of like what a great American stage play looks like.

And they also don't really seem to care.

Exactly.

They just want people from their community to tell a nice charming and funny story about

the history of their town that they're all just really, really, really proud of.

Yeah.

And I think go ahead.

I was, oh, sorry, I cut you off, so I finished.

No, sorry.

Basically done.

Okay.

I'll just say, I think that's kind of another superpower of this movie is that the casting

for this Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine Orhera, they all do such a good job at disarming

you right away by being so weird and quirky and odd.

But the final performance does make you remember like, oh, yeah, these are like professional

trained actors acting as if they're bad at acting and then being acting as if they're

good at bad at being like, it's like those levels of things, you're like, that is what

comedy can be.

They're crushing this because it's like a good performance.

It's not like obviously like Broadway level, but that's not the point.

The point is that it's crisp and polished and looks and sounds amazing.

And it does.

That's fascinating.

It takes a sort of level of skill to act like an amateur actor, yes, to sing like an amateur

singer, dance like someone who doesn't know how to dance.

Yeah.

Like, I specifically remember there's a scene in the performance where they're all like

fake or like pantomiming, like sawing a log and you can look at because it's, because

it's live theater that they're filming, that's what's nice about live theater is everybody's

kind of doing their own little interpretation, their own little bit of a spin.

Yeah.

They're not in sync necessarily, but like Catherine or Hera, if you're just looking at

her throughout that performance, only her, like you'll see her facial expression like

change and she's like really getting into it like her shoulders moving further forward

and backwards than like Fred Willard says he's just doing like his arm motion and it's

like you have those little intricacies of their performance, which is their expression

of their character being way more into it or way less into it or like Fred Willard being

like, I'm above this.

I don't need to put any effort into it.

And she is just like her face is serious and she's really going for it like that over

the top theater kid kind and it's like quirky.

You can tell she is, he believes in the magic of theater and gives us all even though

he's last minute added to the cast because the other guy drops out like, yeah, they're

their individual personalities definitely come through.

Yeah.

Bob Balban just doing his best like amazing conductor.

I know.

I know.

Incredible.

Yeah.

All right.

On defining moments, I mean, the first one I have is just the collection of auditions.

Yes.

Yes.

That was phenomenal.

I laughed so hard when that one guy was just very stiff and was just like, I will be

doing a scene from raging bull.

I know.

Yeah.

That was great.

In like the most calm tone.

Waiting for government does a really good job of like choosing what to reference and

like what certain people because there are some things at the end like in corkies weird

like.

Oh, yeah.

That are phenomenal literally made for us.

Yeah.

That's a couple references to movies we have done episodes on on this podcast that we

all like.

So that was great.

It's way too funny.

But the auditions were just wonderful and I loved how quirky just kind of loved like

everybody and Bob Balban was just constantly like, well, these guys aren't very good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I don't know it watching like Parker Posey's thing was very funny that my weird ass

like duet that Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara do.

I can't even remember what Levy does.

Oh, he does, um, he does like a medley.

Yeah.

He sings like one song and then it turns into like an old honky and then it turns into

like, yeah, he does like a medley.

He's like riffing.

He's making like a funny parody of medley riff.

Yeah.

Oh.

They're all just so good though.

Exactly who those characters are.

And I love Levy earlier just being like, I wasn't the class clown, but I sat next to

him.

Yeah.

Study them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I also had the auditions.

Um, I thought those were all very good.

I liked Parker Posey's a lot.

I actually kind of falls over at the very end after doing the splits.

Oh, yeah.

All these little things.

Oh.

Yeah.

Fred Willard being like, you want me to put the stool back or just leave it here?

Yeah.

Um, the next one I had was the first dancing exercise largely just for that weird little

shifty dance that Eugene Levy does.

It's one of the funniest like this guy's a bad dancer, but kind of believes in himself

and is just willing to just kind of let it fly.

Yeah.

Um, dances that I've ever seen.

It's bad, but it's so funny.

And like kind of moves.

Yeah.

Is that the one he does alone in his apartment?

No, I'm talking about the one like the first day of rehearsal.

Oh, yeah.

Where they're doing like the sort of get loose exercises and they're playing like the

drums and they're all just kind of going out and like dancing and then like going back

into the line and the next person goes and they're just supposed to sort of dance in front

of people comfortable and get loose and stuff.

And yeah, that little move that Eugene Levy does.

I rewound that and watched it like four times in a row.

Yeah.

Because there was a little bit of like how what exactly is he doing?

Mm hmm.

I loved the when Christopher Guest is alone in his apartment.

He's like wearing the jeans backwards for some reason and his little kind of shuffled

move that he can't do like that was also pretty great.

Yeah, that was also really good.

The next one I had was Bob Ballaban.

I can't remember his character's name telling Korky that they need to learn the music.

Yeah.

When there's like the interruption of rehearsal and like no one's in sync and then Korky's

just loving all of it.

He basically doesn't have notes for anyone ever.

Mm hmm.

And then Bob Ballaban's just like they're destroying my music and this like weird sort

of power play that they have where it's kind of like Ballaban being like I'm not trying

to like usurp you or anything, but I need you to know that I think this is kind of

bad.

And the little the arguing over like how loud he's talking.

Yes, tries to be kind.

Why are you whispering?

Why are you why not your two like, yeah, that was that was a normal voice.

Yeah, yeah, then I had just the scene when he asks the town for a hundred thousand

dollars.

Mm hmm.

Gonna be honest, the repetition of that of that scene or like that quote is so funny.

I just look like a half like midway through that performance.

I just like, I was like, I need a hundred thousand dollars.

Like this, this play was going to be a hundred thousand dollars is so funny.

Yeah.

Just really really good stuff with all the council members just laughing and then being

like, dude, we have $15,000 for everything for the whole year.

I love it.

He's like, we have to yeah, the $15,000 for the pool.

He's like, there doesn't need to be a pool in the play.

And they're like, yeah, we know, like literally to keep the pool open.

I love that they like laugh right away.

And they're like, wait, he is being serious.

We, oh shit, we got to talk to him.

Okay, sorry, guys, like, let's calm down.

Like, yeah, that was very well.

You know, all those, yeah, all those guys.

And then after that, I've got the whole gang going up the stairs to Corkeys apartment,

just screaming through the window.

And knocking on the door.

And just like the choice for where he lives, like this second story placed.

And it's up like basically this fire escape essentially with like no rail.

Well, like there's a railing, but it's like there's no like landing or anything

there really.

It's just kind of up the stairs and in, which, you know, we had something similar

to that in college for a year.

I was going to say it reminds me a lot of places.

I think we lived in Eau Claire.

Yeah.

But it just, it created this very funny visual where there's just like,

it's essentially just the, like, bear side of this brick building with four people

standing like, you know, in the direct center of the building, yeah, screaming.

And nobody can see anything.

And then, of course, the cut to him just like in the bubble bath, yeah, with the cap on.

It was great.

Um, do you guys have anything else between here and like the show itself?

The only other one I had was the, the dinner at the Chinese restaurant with leavey

Oh, hair, uh, and will she shit face.

And I just think that was, that was definitely a foreshadowing of like shit's

creek kind of humor, but also just like that was where they, it did kind of creep

into the more like outrageous, like kind of trying to gin up like a moment that

would be like, oh, we turned these up to 11 or whatever where it's like, you know,

how many husbands have penis reductions or well, you could have had a vagina large.

Like, they were like, you could tell when they wrote that they were laughing.

And just like the hyper awkward, he like stands up.

He's about to like show you, you need leavey.

Like I did, and then yeah, the, she's drunk, the bickering.

It was just that was like classic, like those specific actors playing off each

other. Um, yeah, so that would be one for me.

Yeah, that's a good one to bring up.

I mean, yeah, then after that, I just had like essentially the whole play.

The first song was so wonderful.

Mm hmm. Yeah, it just fit the vibe so well.

And it was so like simple and goofy and funny and like a little off.

But like kind of charming, yeah, not bad.

Not like I said, the first song you can tell, okay, the crowd actually is going to like this.

And I can like feel I was dreading that this was going to end disaster.

But actually, we're having a fun time and like, yeah, the tone is just great.

Yeah. And I really liked the guy that they found to be like the narrator.

I was like, oh, he's like pretty good at this. Yeah.

Yeah, he was pretty good.

And the guy who's just, um, we made him at the beginning and he's like,

he wanted to be in the play, but he couldn't because he had some obligation and him

just being like the super fan who just loves it and wanted to be in it so bad.

The kind of great, great additional side character that cut to when he's crying.

Yeah, in the audience was also clearly in love with Korky.

Like, yeah. Yeah.

That was a, yeah, the Korky and like Parker Posey sort of love ballad.

I love song. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't remember what it was called.

It was like an idiom or something.

I don't remember a penny.

Penny, put Penny for your thoughts.

Penny for your thoughts. Yeah. Yeah.

That was great.

I really loved Eugene Levy in the alien costume.

Yeah. Yes. That was really good.

That had cast or a hair had a line there that was maybe, maybe, maybe made me

laugh the hardest in the entire movie.

I can't remember exactly what it was, but it's like Fred Willard says that he

thinks the spaceship is like something else, like a corn silo.

Oh, yeah.

And she just turns to the audience and you're like, that's no corn silo.

Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah.

That was amazing.

I love like the green light like out on the audio.

Like the production value was just perfect level of like amateur, but still pretty good.

And then also that had some of the funniest lyrical stuff where it's like Mars is boring,

boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, isn't he time?

Yeah. That was good. That was good.

Good shit.

And then I had like the end that scene, not the end end, but the scene where

that random dude comes in that they think is Guffman.

And he tells them it's a wonderful show.

I also love that he does tell them that he thinks it could make it on Broadway.

Yeah.

So do you think it could be on Broadway?

He's like, yeah, why not?

I don't see why not.

Yeah, that's really good.

And then I mean, they're all excited and then just devastated.

But like we as the people viewing the movie know before they have figured it out

that like they did a good thing here.

Yeah.

And they should be proud of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I think the whole, all the performers, all six of the songs or whatever.

And just the last like 20 minutes, 25 minutes, we're all very good.

And I think, yeah, like you said, the original music, the original songs and

just the performing of all the songs, the stool building song was great.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Something about like a stool can go where once upon a time there was a chair.

Yeah.

I like you guys, you guys bringing up parks and rec because yeah, this feels so

much like inspiration for Pawnee, like a weird little alien landing where there's

like kind of a group that's super into that.

The president visited once and everybody remembers it.

Yeah.

And they're known for this like weird ass thing of like they build stools.

Yeah.

And yeah, I think that's a very appropriate comparison is comparing this kind

of the parks and rec a little bit.

For sure.

Thank you.

Yeah, those were all my moments except for as we alluded to.

The incredible and credits seen in Korky's little gift shop that had two very

specific speak film and enter references that those did kill me.

That was probably the remains of the day lunchbox.

I literally started crying.

I was like, I was so badly.

I know.

I was like, it got like somebody inserted AI into this movie to put that in there.

I was like, there's no way that was the joke.

There's no way that was the joke of the 90s.

Yeah, like that just blows my mind.

And then also the way to talk about the action figures for my dinner with what

I did with Andre, yeah, I did it with Andre.

And then he's like, and I really would like to get some action figures for

DOS boots.

Yeah.

That was hilarious.

And I think that really felt good being a movie podcast that so many of those

references were just like, oh my God.

Yes.

This is the film and enter content right here.

That's what I meant before about how like the movies that he chose to reference

were just so perfect for like a theater obsessed gay guy.

Who like it's mainstream enough in some areas, but also it's like in the arts

year round for sure, for sure.

He's the off, off, off, off Broadway, like theater art tour, right?

He's going to have like, yeah, he's almost as off Broadway as Mars is boring.

Yeah.

Yeah, there remains the day lunch box genius killed me.

Yeah, that's what I had.

Anybody else or should we move on to questions?

Yeah, we can move on to questions.

So I had one.

I'm just going to ask, what did you guys think of guests portrayal as a gay

character living in a small town that's likely probably kind of conservative?

I mean, I felt like the like this time too.

Cause it's like mid 90s now.

So it was an interesting time to have this type of character.

Yeah.

Yeah, it felt, um, I'd say of the whole movie.

It's it's only part of some of the jokes that I felt felt a little dated.

It just kind of like it was good.

And it's honest and it's not like, it's not like offensive really, but it's

also just like of the time.

And I guess those are some of the only like jokes or kind of insinuations that

maybe just didn't age as great as a lot of the other jokes in it for me.

But I felt like he definitely approached it.

Like you said, you know, on all of his movies, there's genuinely, usually

loves his characters unless they're specifically assholes.

And I felt like he had a real like he was trying to like get us to love this

character and express kind of how difficult that would be.

Yeah.

And yeah, I liked quirky, but I would say if someone said that those that part of

it didn't age as great, I would understand that, but I think he did a good job.

Yeah, I think I almost didn't, almost didn't even clock it.

Like it doesn't feel like it's definitely a part of his character, but it's

not something that's like specifically talked about mentioned, made a point

to mention.

It's just kind of like another fact of that guy.

It's like, oh, yeah, he's a gay guy, but like we don't ever really spend

time with it, which I think is a actually a really well done version of this

because of the timing of this.

It's like, it's kind of, I wouldn't say it's snuck in there because I don't think

it's like subversive.

I think it's very like obviously there, maybe a little bit like you can question

like initially, when you first meet him, like, yeah, it's just a weird dude.

And you're like, oh, it's like he's weird and he's like, he's quirky because of

this theater.

And like, there's that aspect of his personality.

He's a wife that no one has ever seen or met his wife.

Yeah, you start putting, you start putting things together, right?

But I think it's a, it's a masterful way of adding that because it's like,

this is going to sound terrible.

But it's like an inoffensive way to introduce a character like that.

Like it's, it's, I say, inoffensive meaning like it's not going to like

fire off warning bells and conservative heads of like, that's a gay guy.

Like we don't like those people.

It's more of like, that's a guy.

He's just kind of a wank.

Like, and after we, after we just watched a whole bunch of 90s movies,

it was done better than a lot of the gay characters in those movies were done.

And so like,

you brought up kind of what I was going to, which is how he just is.

Yeah.

And it doesn't treat it like a part of the movie that we need to spend any extra time

with.

It's just who he is.

It's very matter of fact and accepted.

And there's not any point where the movie is like, we need to like justify this guy's

existence.

It's like, talk about it.

Except the whole cast finds out he's gay and then they have to talk about it.

And that's a thing.

It's not like a top point.

Yeah, for as much as the town is this little town in Missouri,

which is probably somewhat backwards politically for, you know, for what we would say,

he's never treated as an outsider.

The town is like completely like, that's our guy.

You mean, that also helps.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

So that was what I had.

Nice.

My only question was what was your favorite song of the six?

I mean, I think right when Blaine.

Red wine Blaine's just so good.

Is that the opener?

Yeah.

No, that's the closer, isn't it?

Oh, it's closer to me.

Yeah.

I think the opener just for the sheer like surprise competency factor of it.

And we hadn't seen it before.

I just laughed really hard because it was like, oh, thank God.

It's like good enough.

And it's also just kind of funny anyway.

Yeah, I responded the most to the first one.

And then after that, probably the alien one.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think it's a tie between the first one and the stool one.

I think the props, they were doing a lot of cool things with the props and the

saws and yeah, I thought that was a very well done.

And by that time, you're like, okay, this is actually going to be kind of a success.

So I can just kind of have fun and appreciate like these people having fun.

Adam.

It's very funny.

Oh, yeah.

Red wine Blaine would be my answer.

Nice.

And did you have any questions?

My question was just more anecdotal.

Why isn't this movie three hours long?

Like it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is, it is, it definitely goes pretty quick.

We meet the characters.

They're practicing for the thing.

And then like the last 20 minutes is like the performance.

Yeah, we get like three months later.

Boop, boop, boop, boop.

Goodbye.

Yeah, it's like one of, it's one of the shortest movies we've probably reviewed.

It's only an hour and 24 minutes.

Like we probably haven't had that many others.

Not like excluding like animation in our much shorter.

So it does fly.

And it does go by pretty quick.

Yeah.

All right, observations and musings.

Yeah, I've got a few here.

Okay.

I really liked the note that they think they need riflemen to protect from getting

egged.

That was great joke.

phenomenal.

Like, yeah, let's get some rifles like riflemen like here here.

Oh, we got egged a lot last year.

Then I had a note, just stool capital of the world.

Amazing.

Also, next one, having David Cross be the alien fanatic was, that was my

Capsciss.

Yeah, me, the David Cross cameo was perfect.

Beautiful.

And all of the, I should have included that in the scenes because yeah,

all of his like facts about the landing spot where he's like the temperature never

changes.

And there's always a 40% chance of rain.

I had a line from Eugene Levy's character's wife that I really liked where she

said, we don't associate with the creative types.

We have a scrabble club.

We associate with people with babies.

That was really good.

I like that one, dude's old fart hat.

Yeah, that was good.

Then I also wrote down like Fred Willard is just such a goon in this movie.

I know.

But he's always just like undermining everybody.

He's very smug and that moment that sequence where it's like during their

off stage, but like between scenes and he's having his wife like curl his hair.

Yeah, I think it's right before they go out like originally.

That wasn't the beginning of the show.

That was in the middle.

No, it's in the middle of the movie.

Yeah, it's actually right before the alien song.

Yeah, okay, because and where the joke for this actually is.

Is that so then he like she's done with his and then he's like, okay,

you can go to yours now if you want.

She has like 30 seconds left.

You're going to go out on stage and he's wearing a hat.

Yeah.

That's the punchline to that scene, but it speaks to kind of some of the,

like Dylan, but you're getting at like maybe more like drier, more understated

ways that this movie kind of leans into the humor.

But I thought that was great.

And then yeah, I had the remains of the day lunch box and the mic dinner with Andre

action figures.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of dairy queen love in this.

Yeah, the dairy queen stuff was great.

It definitely makes you feel that they always have a small place for me at the dairy queen.

Well, and if you remember that specific dairy queen, like at the end when she's

talking, that looks like the dairy queen.

We had no clear before it got renovated.

Oh, yeah.

They all work and yeah, the whip lash I had on that was like, oh my God.

Like that's, I, yeah, crazy.

The scene where she's grilling one single chicken wing.

Yes, perfect season.

Unseasoned.

Yeah, that was good.

I also, I most of those ones that you mentioned, the little moment read the last

song, the very patriotic red, white and blaine or whatever, where they all

marched down the middle of the aisle and the camera is in the middle of the

aisle. And Fred Willard gives the camera a direct look and a little finger point.

That was like, he's just, all right, P Fred Willard, man.

He was just a great comedic.

He just knew how to be funny like ever like, it's so well.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

Yeah, it's just right at the camera like, oh, my God.

Yeah, just a lot of great little moments.

And again, and also I felt like a lot more or not a lot more, but I just felt

the human moments kind of more.

I think we mentioned spinal tap like, there's that one moment at the end where

the league guitarist and lead singer are talking to each other and they're like,

hey, well, like now we'll have time to do like those other stuff that we thought

of like back when we were younger and like, we've lived a good life.

And like, you know, it's okay that the band is breaking up and it's like this

heartfelt moment.

And I feel like this movie has more of that more of that just kind of woven

throughout and not as many as the memorable.

Everyone's going to quote it for the next 45 years kind of moments.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, Adam, any observations and musings?

Yeah, I had a couple.

The the when they introduce Catherine or her and Fred Williams characters,

like they take like they introduce them as if like it's like a series of

photographs, the photographs are so fucking funny, just like a little track

suits and stuff.

They're they're little handshake.

They do when they're like getting ready to go in the front.

They're auditioned.

They like snap twice.

And then it's like a like a little finger like penis vagina thing.

Like finger goes into the hole and then they pull it out and then they like

swing their hands from like a sad face like over the face to a happy face.

And it's just like this, this beautiful little like clap.

Let's go.

Like it's so funny.

Yes, that was great.

Speaking of Catherine O'Hara, she has the same hair in like every scene.

So which makes that that comment that Fred Wheeler makes to her even funnier.

And she's always got like the front of her hair.

It's like the something about Mary like come here.

It's like always just sticking straight up in the front that that was super funny.

Then when they go, they're like, oh, we have to we have to relieve some of the stress.

How do they relieve the stress in small town, America?

You go bowling.

Yeah, like you go to the local bowling alley.

I look a lot like the bowling alley.

Adam, you haven't seen this movie yet, but in the Big Lebowski.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then when they're at the bowling alley, Eugene Levy's just straight gutter ball.

Yeah, yeah, right away.

I'm like, he's getting ready approach and boom, right in the gutter.

Little things like that.

Yeah.

And then the last one I said, whiplash from the from the DQ.

I think the garbage at the Dairy Queen because they all used to say like, thank you.

You know, like big white block letters and that just doesn't exist anymore.

Now they're just garbage and gray.

So the DQ whiplash and then I need $100,000 is just hilarious to me.

The last one is that I think the story of Blaine, of how Blaine came to be erected or founded.

Yeah.

Is the story of Meeks cut off is if it was successful.

It is, it is, it is, it is kind of familiar where I will find you, I will find you water.

I will bring you to California.

I will find the ocean for you.

Oh, I guess I don't know where it is.

We're going to stop right here.

We're close enough.

And then like, then they lived instead of dying.

Like that's the difference.

Well, it is a coastal town.

If you count the Mississippi River, so I mean, yeah, yeah, it was like,

so they all just kind of realized this was good enough.

And now here I am talking to you at this desk as soon as they said the story.

I was like, Oh, it's me.

It's cut off.

Got it.

Yeah.

That's my last one.

All right.

Onto tidbits.

Tidbits.

Okay.

We've got some fun ones.

I'm just going to start with much of the dialogue was ad-libbed in this movie.

I think probably close to like 80 to 90% of it by this,

by this, the only parts that were actually scripted by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy were

the lines in the musical Red, White, and Blaine.

That means most of the rest of the movie was completely, completely ad-libbed,

which is why you can see a lot of people like breaking or like close to breaking.

So speaking of the music and lyrics for Red, White, and Blaine, we're all written

by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Sheerier, the three stars from this

is Spinal Tap, 84.

The musical auditions were the actors first public performances of their respective

audition pieces.

That's great.

Which is beautiful in my head.

And the feel of it.

Oh, yeah.

Why they're so like awkward and fun.

Like it's still like sort of good.

Like the people who are playing or the person who's playing the accompanying music is like

on for all these like things that will you assume they'd never practice before.

Music, all the people playing instrument.

They're like very competent.

Like way more so seemingly than the rest.

And Bob Balvan is actually like very professional.

Yeah.

Well, if you remember when we get to the musical, like they're in like Tuxedos.

Yeah, they're like full dress as if this is the best thing to be able to play like the

overture and it's just like, yeah, these guys are nailing it.

Yeah, yeah.

During the scene where Korki is teaching the cast some dance moves.

Eugene Levy can can be seen in the background behind everybody hidden from view or nearly

hidden from view.

Obviously, you can see him.

This is because whenever guest would show off his dance moves, Eugene Levy would laugh

too hard and they'd have to cut and wait for him to stop laughing so they could do

another take.

So they figured it would just be best if he was in the back where he would not be

able to see what guest was doing in the scene.

But then he would come out.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

In an early cut of the film, the musical alone ran for 40 minutes.

So it's basically the full performance.

I mean, it's also like some of the best stuff in the movie.

So I watched that cut.

Yeah.

Christopher Guest spent a year and a half editing almost 60 hours of footage with the

editor Andy Blumthal to come up with the final cut of the movie, which again is only

an hour and 24 minutes.

That's 60 hours of footage with all of that ad living.

That must have just been that we're keeping every take and we'll look at the best one.

Like, yeah, in a wild in the original script outline, a tornado destroyed the theater

before the cast ever got to perform the show.

Okay.

Yeah, well, town.

Yep, which before we got to it, I was wondering like which way we were going to go

or if we were going to have it at all.

And I'm glad like we got it and it ended up being good.

That's probably the best solution here.

But I was like, Oh, we're just going to cut away or something crazy.

He's going to happen or you know, a guffman will actually show up.

And then the last one is considering that the California trail started an

independence Missouri, which is only 10 miles from the Kansas state line.

The ineptitude of blame, Fabin cannot be overstated.

That's what also solidifies to me.

Like this is meek's cut off.

Yeah, that's a good, that's a good tidbit.

And I did look up blame Missouri because I was like, we're going to be like,

oh, maybe we should do a road trip there.

And it's a very, very small town.

It's like an unincorporated like spec like they made it seem like a small town,

but it's actually much even smaller than that.

But yeah, that's genius of them to just a little geographical joke there.

Yeah, like they were literally as close as they could.

They were on like positive highway basically trail starts right there.

We stopped here too far too far.

That's it. Cool.

All right, on the stock up or down, I got quite a few here.

So rapid fire, Christopher Guest, up.

Yeah, Eugene Levy, up.

He's never not gone up.

Same with Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard and Peter Posey and Alabama.

Yeah. And then mockumentaries up Missouri.

Up, I guess.

If these are the people in Missouri, I guess up when I've met people

from Missouri, I'm going to say down there enough.

I'll say up a little bit.

I want to believe I want to believe, but I am unable to.

Yeah. Yeah.

Small towns up up.

Yeah, I think so.

Community theater up up.

See, these are the silver linings here for Missouri being a theater.

Yeah, yeah, musicals up up.

Yes, when they're not great, you got to go.

That did just remind me of a quirky auditioning for my fair lady at the end

and thinking he's almost got the cockney accent down.

Yeah. Oh, my God.

It's all bad.

It's all the heaches.

Yeah.

I think I'm getting there.

Dairy queen up.

Beating hard of some of these small communities as the dairy queen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, the grill and mr.

Guffman down down.

Yeah, I got to go down.

Yeah, I'm still waiting.

Howard still waiting to this day.

Yeah.

All right, on to awards.

We begin with the McCabe coat of excellence.

Dylan, let's start with you.

I mean, although I did enjoy this movie and talking about it with you guys

has maybe brought it up slightly, I will not be giving out a coat for this one.

Shame.

That's okay.

How about you guys?

Guest.

Yeah, I had Christopher Guest, you know, writer, director, actor, and casting.

Okay, whoever casts all these people.

Oh, yeah, that was him or like an actual department.

Amazing choice in all of these people.

Stan Grossman words of wisdom.

I did not have any.

There were a lot of very funny lines.

I have no for this.

Okay, but you use yours first.

I have people don't like to have fire poked, poked in their noses.

That's just true.

Yes, that's a wisdom from quirky right there.

And we can all take that from this movie.

Yeah, how you actually lit the fire at the end of the play.

And then later, like the council members when they're trying to hype them up.

Like, and you remember, like, I can still feel the heat.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good stuff.

I have one, although I don't know if it's going to be the quote,

does your quote have to do with Walmart at all, Dylan?

Nope.

Okay, cool.

He shops at Walmart.

He doesn't even support the town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that.

That was, I don't know, that was funny.

It was good.

All right, appropriately, we are going to move on to the Steven meek award.

Yes.

Uh, Goughman sends a letter saying he was going to come, doesn't show maybe

it necessarily, but, you know, he meant or you could give it to that doofus that

lied to these people and said that they had made it to California, although

they survive and start a town that everybody's really proud of.

So yeah, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure anyone deserves the hat of shame in this one.

Besides maybe Goughman, but I mean, there was a blizzard.

That's why he didn't just bail like he kind of had a

reason.

Yeah, it was the 90s, you know, flights were grounded, so grounded because of

snow and get it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, does any character in this movie have their after life moments?

I would bet most of the performers probably do after either during the show

or right after when the streaming, the balloons come down and everyone in the

community loved it.

And they're all like hugging them and saying that was great guys.

And I think probably that moment for, for a lot of them, I would think.

Yeah, it's the same thing.

It's relived that night.

Yeah.

Maybe for Parker Posey, it's eventually when she figures out how to invent her

a low fat blizzard.

Yeah, God.

It's a small dream, but it's, it's funny.

It's achievable.

It's achievable.

Uh, which character would you add from another movie that we have reviewed?

Um, I mean, for me, I kind of just put anyone from spinal tap.

I think, you know, anyone from any of these Christopher guests, one who somehow

wasn't in this ensemble could have totally fit in.

Um, and also from Wes Anderson's bottle rocket, I think Dignan would, would

fit in in this town.

That was, that was mine.

I think he continues to play, he continues to be like to fit the energy and his

vibe continues to fit multiple genres and multiple movies.

He just, he's just weird enough.

One of my most versatile characters.

Yeah.

Honestly, and they even say when the, the teenage, the younger guy who's in it,

but then bails the night of the show, the one guy says like, I never liked that

kid.

He came into my shop once and he like tried to steal a copy.

What was it?

Like a copy machine or something?

Oh, he's like, he's a bad, he's a bad kid.

So like that was it.

Dignan so perfectly, like the town all thinks he's like a petty criminal,

but he like really wants to be in this musical.

And he'd get really into it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like those pics.

I'd probably find anybody so I didn't have one.

Okay.

I mean, Dignan's just such an easy one to fall back to is what it works.

It works.

Who would you most want to hang out with and least want to hang out with?

Most probably Parker Posey, probably Parker Posey.

Yeah, for her or Bob Ballaban, just because it's like normal.

Yeah, it seems pretty fun.

Probably least would be Fred Willard's character, because he's always undermining

everybody and is so cocky and smug.

I think I'm gonna get old quick.

Yeah, Fred Willard for sure.

Yeah.

I would not want to go out to dinner with Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara's characters.

Oh, my God.

No, I mean, I would because the train wreck would be just a sight to behold.

But like, that's what you're getting is, is that like you're having a good time?

Well, anybody be giving out an all I got was this t-shirt award.

I don't think so.

No, please God.

No, is there a wedding destination in this movie?

I put no, I don't, I don't really know.

Thanks, I don't know.

We only really get like one shot of the town.

And it's basically like the town square with the city hall in the middle,

surrounded by a park, surrounded by a street, then surrounded by all the businesses.

So yeah, that's just a huge open space, which I don't know.

Yes, no, the building's not that beautiful.

It's cool, but, you know, yeah, probably good on that.

All right, on to star ratings and closing statements.

Dylan, once again, let's start with you.

Yeah, well, like I said, my opening statement.

The, it didn't quite hit the comedic highs,

but it did hit the human kind of story of everyone just committing to some art

and having a passion and working together to create something,

give a performance, create this moment that everyone's going to remember.

And what that means to people.

So the heart was there.

So, and my closing statement is just this is a love letter for anyone who's been in a play

or worked on a play or a musical.

It's really just a love letter to your local theater troupe.

And I think anyone who has done that kind of like your parents,

or even like my parents were in plays, I can totally see why they absolutely

adore this movie because it is for them of them about them.

Like, so I'm going to give this a three and a half.

I thought it was very good.

I think right now it's still slightly behind his other three that I've seen spinal

have best in show and a mighty wind.

But I haven't seen a mighty wind in a long time, but it's still very good.

I love what he does.

Great balance between laughing at the characters and laughing with them.

Like you said.

So yeah, three and a half.

And I'm glad that the weight is finally over for GoFundMe.

Yeah, I picked it and glad we watched it.

Yeah, we did it.

I'll go next.

I'm going to give this a four.

I think it was maybe like

five to 10% less laugh out loud funny than I was expecting or hoping for.

But still like it generally speaking lived up to almost all the expectations that I had.

Nice.

And yeah, just I like a movie like this that can just kind of leave you feeling nice about smaller things.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that.

How about you Adam?

I'm a little bit higher than you guys actually.

So I made again, maybe it's because I'm on this kick where it's I've really kind of dove in.

I mean, just gone three and within the last month, but I'm at a four and a half.

Nice.

I have spinal taps out of four best and shows at a four and a half.

I think this reaches the that same level of best and show.

I think honestly, if I rewatch best and show and this will probably both go up to a five.

I would like to watch best and show I'm overdue for a rewatch of best and show.

Yeah, I think both these movies definitely need to be watched with people.

These are this.

Yeah, you can't you can't always laugh at absurd stuff alone.

You kind of be like, oh, that's kind of that's funny.

But like that's your reaction.

And when you're with people, like that was fucking crazy.

Like that just heightens that a little bit more, which helps.

And just because you can see the just bouncing the idea off of like that is an outrageous thing to do.

Or like you're doing like you're doing this dog or like you know, even Nate,

when you texted the group that line about and what happens if Missouri falls,

yeah, you texting that made me laugh again because we could share in the humor of it.

I think when he said it on state, I laughed.

But then when you texted, I was like, oh,

sometimes it's just you need to share in the in the humor to really like amplify it.

Exactly.

Like and especially when you're watching with people,

some people are going to catch stuff that you didn't because you were laughing at the first joke.

And they like maybe didn't think that one was as funny, but they caught the final one.

And they're like, did you hear that?

Like that's what's always fun about that.

So it's a really good time.

Four and a half for me.

I did find one other observation and musing that I thought was funny.

There's a character titled ping pong ball player.

He is played by Turk Pipkin.

Great names.

Amazing name.

Amazing name.

So we have one.

Awesome.

Well, positive all around.

And yeah, we finally were able to cross waiting for Guffman off the list, which is wonderful.

And reminder that our next episode will be my top 10 movies of 2025.

And also we can say what our next movie is to in case anybody wants to watch it before we review it.

But our next one will be Adam's pick, which was dog day afternoon.

Yeah.

Very excited to revisit.

I only saw it once right after watching two of my like 15 favorite movies of all time.

So it was, it had a uphill battle.

Yeah.

The first time.

So I'm very, very excited to revisit dog day afternoon.

Hmm.

Yeah, that should be fun.

That should be great.

And as this was my pick, I believe it's my turn to put a wrap on the show.

Yep.

Take us out.

If there's an empty space, just fill it with a line.

That's what I like to do, even if it's from another show.