A Mighty Wind vs The Anniversary Party

A Mighty Wind is the latest from the Waiting for Guffman/Best in Show guys.  You know the drill:  they outline a concept, and leave it up to their amazing group of actors to improvise characters and scenes.  Notice I said “improvise” and not “ad-lib”.  These aren’t stand-ups dropping references from their acts, these are actors playing roles.  Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, credited as screenwriters, stick with the mockumentary format from the previous two films, this time focusing on the world of folk music.  Basically everyone from the previous two films returns, and it’s such a huge cast that there’s just no way to give everyone equal time. Every member gets a moment, at least, to make an impression, so no complaints here (especially not about Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge). I mean, come on, when was the last time you were impressed by every single actor in a movie?

The plot isn’t the point so much as the execution, but the plot, such as it is, involves the death of a legendary folk producer.  In tribute, his son-- an anal-retentive, perfectionist moron played by Bob Balaban—decides to stage a reunion concert of his father’s most famous acts. For me the most fun in a Mighty Wind came in catching up with these acts, seeing how they’d evolved from their 1960s heyday, and learning about their various sordid lives. The New Main Street Singers is one of those Silver Dollar City style groups, smiling and wearing matching sweaters, none of them actually original members of the group. I saw an act like this at the Wisconsin State Fair last year. No member was over 19, but they kept saying “We’re so glad to see you back again! We’ve been performing at this fair for over thirty years!” Uh, not with those kids you haven’t.  Jane Lynch plays Laurie Bohner, the lead female of the Singers, with an extraordinarily shady past. The funniest moment I’ve seen in a movie this year is Laurie describing her porno days in much the same way she might describe a child’s soccer game, or maybe that nice bird bath she’s buying for the lawn. It’s all so matter-of-fact and self-impressed. Beautiful. There’s another nice moment when her husband and co-lead is explaining to a new member just how long he has to wait before taking off his official New Main Street Singers sweater vest.

Plus, my girlfriend Parker Posey on mandolin.

Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean play the Folksmen, famous for their broken diner sign song “Eat at Joe’s”. The Folksmen enjoyed a modest amount of success, despite the fact that their records were pressed without a hole in the center. Guest has put himself in more of a supporting part this time, but as always, he gets the funniest haircut.

The center of A Mighty Wind involves Mitch and Mickey (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara), the most famous performers involved in the reunion. If they can get them to participate, that is. Mitch and Mickey had an unrequited flirtation during their tenure as a duo, ending in a kiss on live TV. Mickey has fond memories of her days with Mitch, if a little apprehension about actually meeting him again. Mitch is another story. Mitch has become an over-medicated, paranoid, shuffling man-child. Even if he agrees to appear at the concert, will he be able to perform with Mickey? Will he try for another kiss? Hilarity ensues, but also something else. In Mitch and Mickey, A Mighty Wind finds something missing in the previous two Guest and Co. movies: a big fat heart.  Oh sure, there were moments of rooting for the underdog in Waiting for Guffman, and moments of rooting for actual dogs in Best in Show, but A Mighty Wind steps outside of the satire completely from time to time, playing out Mitch and Mickey’s story in actual human terms. It’s pretty surprising, and more genuine and touching than what passes for drama in most movies. I think Levy and O'Hara give award-worthy performances. Of course since they’re comedy-based, that’s not likely to happen. On the whole, Hollywood has low self-esteem, and only sees fit to award those who suffer the most.

I guess the extent to which you appreciate A Mighty Wind will depend largely on the extent to which you appreciate folk music. I’m only a casual fan (meaning, I’m not a fan), so the character bits got me more than the song spoofs. Honestly, I think some of the songs are pretty good, and they’re all well-played. I’m not sure if that’s a flaw in A Mighty Wind or not. Part of the joy of Waiting For Guffman is in the awful musical numbers and auditions, but here, the performers are all professional, and they have talent to back it up. For me, it helped the “documentary” feel true. I’ve heard other people say they were disappointed that the songs weren’t worse.

Is A Mighty Wind as funny as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman?  Well, no. But if you were eating an ice cream, and you slipped on a banana peel, and your ice cream flew up in the air, and then you fell, and the ice cream landed on your head with the cone up like a birthday hat, and then a cute little dog came up and started licking the ice cream while it’s still stuck to your head, and then Rip Taylor came in with a bucket of confetti and tossed it on you, you still wouldn’t be as funny as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman.  It’s a lot to live up to.  Relax.  A Mighty Wind is funny.

There are a few folk music documentaries out there that you might be interested in renting after A Mighty Wind. Best of luck to you. Unfortunately, there aren’t any that I’m interesting in seeing. I think a nice companion to A Mighty Wind is The Anniversary Party. Like Wind, The Anniversary Party is comprised largely of independent film actors, is heavy on improvisation, and sticks it to those who might be a little too pretentious for their own good. Unlike Wind, though, The Anniversary Party is mostly a drama, with moments of comedy coming through unexpectedly, waking up the movie periodically, and keeping the drama in check.

The main characters of The Anniversary Party are Sally Therrian, an actress, and her husband Joe, a writer and director, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming. They’re celebrating not only their anniversary, but also the fact that they’ve recently reconciled after months apart. They’re throwing a party, not so much as a celebration, but as reassurance. Their marriage must be on the mend, right? They’re having a party, for crying out loud.

Things are tense around the house. Joe has recently begun production on a film, the main character of which was obviously based on Sally, but for which she wasn’t cast. The implication is that she’s too old for the part. Of herself. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Sally with a mix of actorly neurosis and self-deprecating humor. She’s full of self-loathing, but only to the extent that the people around her are supposed to chime in with counterstrike compliments, and if they don’t, well then her self-loathing was meant to be ironic. I think it’s Leigh’s best performance since Georgia.

As The Anniversary Party gets going, we think we’ve seen a movie like this before. Part Hollywood satire, part Big Chill-style reminiscence. Most of the actors have worked together before (you can connect the entire cast—and it’s a big cast—through just two or three movies.) But The Anniversary Party does something interesting: it creates situations, both awkward and sincere, around types we’ve seen before, but with actors who seem too-familiar with the roles. It helped, I’m sure, with the improvisational moments, but also provides the viewer with a fly-on-the-wall feeling you don’t ordinarily get in movies like this.  Take, for example, some of the party guests:  Kevin Kline plays an aging leading man, full of Shakespeare quotes and wit. His wife is Sally’s best friend, a former actress who gave up her career to raise a family. She’s played by Phoebe Cates, Kline’s real wife, Leigh’s best friend, and in real life, she drastically slowed her career to raise her kids. I don’t know if we’ve ever been given a moment to appreciate Cates as an adult actress (I mean, an actress who is an adult. Adult actress is something different.), but she’s great in The Anniversary Party. Hey Phoebe, go out and get you a couple of those celebrity nannies and make some more movies.

Other guests include John C. Reilly as Sally’s newest director (she sucks in his movie. He doesn’t help things by watching the dailies at her house) and his wife, an anorexic actress played by Jane Adams. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Skye Davidson, the younger actress cast in the role written for Sally. (By the way, Skye Davidson is a perfect fake actor name. It reminds me of those crisp, fake-sounding-but real movie star names we hear every few years, like Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt.)  As if she doesn’t make the hosts tense enough (at one point she tells Sally she grew up watching her movies, a back-handed compliment that’s mostly backhand), the neighbors have also come over, under the guise of celebration, but mainly to complain about Sally’s beloved dog.  Jennifer Beals plays a sophisticated photographer who is Joe’s best friend in both the literal sense and the wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of way. There’s a great scene where she presents the couple with a photograph and Beals and Leigh portray that odd jealous affection you reserve for your friends you hate the most. Beals took all the photos herself, by the way.

Oh, and my girlfriend Parker Posey as the Therrian’s manager.

The key point in the movie is when the guests take the floor, one at a time, to present Joe and Sally with a gift. Most of it is kind words, but some perform (The Girls Guitar Club gets a song, and Kline and Cates’ real-life kids perform an interpretive dance thing), and Skye Davidson presents the happy couple with an envelope full of Ecstasy.  Soon, pills are popped, and the party moves to the pool. Truths are revealed, lives risked, addictions reignited, and the party…well it ends like lots of parties end: feelings hurt, friendships ruined or reinforced. And hey, we should do this again some time. Call me.

The Anniversary Party was filmed in digital video, but it doesn’t show. The picture is never grainy or ill-framed. I saw XX/XY recently and I could have sworn there were a couple times when the camera man bumped into something. Cumming and Leigh co-directed and co-wrote The Anniversary Party, and they’ve created a realistic, moving environment for their story and characters. All the dialogue feels motivated and genuine, and the film is carefully edited, something not common in independent, digital movies. There are also several subtle moments of satire, like when Sally and Joe take their morning yoga class on the front porch, with their home an artful back drop, like they’re being profiled on E!.

One complaint:  You have a swimming pool. You have Phoebe Cates. Why, for the love of Judge Reinhold, don’t you have Phoebe Cates in the swimming pool?

A Mighty Wind: B+

The Anniversary Party: A