Christopher Guest as Harlan Pepper |
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I am a docutainment fan. I adore Globetrekker, 30 Days, and feel that BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is one of the funniest movies ever. I weep with sadness when I imagine what I might have wanted to be when I grew up if I'd had educational and entertaining filmstrips and movies in grade school . . . Maybe I'd be an anthropologist, cellular biologist, or even a documentary filmmaker!
The mockumentary is a lovely extension of our positive cultural response to docutainment. The mockumentary is an almost perfect genre, rich with possibility. Mockumentaries have the built-in ability for satire on several levels-- to poke fun at the topic being documented, the people who obsess about the topic, and the audience and culture that foster the obsession with that topic.
Without THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) we would never have had Behind The Music, and my grad school years would have been so much emptier. The amazing team of Christopher Guest (director and actor), Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean (among others) have worked together on several amazing mockumentaries, including THIS IS SPINAL TAP (directed by Rob Reiner), WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996), BEST IN SHOW (2000), A MIGHTY WIND (2003), and FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (2006). People argue about which is the most brilliant, and I'll admit that I waffle. In fact, I'm waffling now. But for straight out laughs, I guess I have to go with BEST IN SHOW.
Several dog owners head to Philadelphia for the Mayflower Kennel Club's dog show, and through the dogs, many human stereotypes are exploited: the gays, the Florida trasherati, the small-town simpleton, the DINK couple. Screenplays employ stereotypical characters in the interest of saving time: it's much easier to get to the story if the characters offer traits familiar to the audience (you know, the shrewish wife, the bratty teen-aged daughter, the mischievous pre-teen boy with a slingshot in his pocket), but BEST IN SHOW takes stereotypes and twists them to the point of absurdity, causing the audience to question the stereotypes' usage and validity, which is what any good satire should do, really. Plus, it's just really frackin' funny. Catherine O'Hara and Parker Posey are brilliantly funny, and Fred Willard's commentary (as an American idiot), juxtaposed with a refined British commentator, is worth the price of admission alone.
In WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, a small town playhouse bursts with excitement at the possibility of a Broadway critic being in the audience for opening night of their hokey musical. (Not to be a spoiler here, but Guffman is like Godot, and if you're familiar with WAITING FOR GODOT, I don't have to tell you whether or not Guffman shows up). Like Beckett's play, the people waiting and preparing are also contemplating their existence, although not in the ways the audience would expect them to. Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest create characters that really allow their actors to shine, especially the female actors, namely (again) Parker Posey and Catherine O'Hara.
For a delightfully rich and hilarious mockumentary, you cannot go wrong with any project by Guest, et al., but they are not the only makers of noteworthy mockumentary. Another of my favorites is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS (1999). I don't know if it's that it takes place in Minnesota and Kirstie Alley's accent is so hilariously over the top, or that it shows the very ugly side of beauty pageants, but DROP DEAD GORGEOUS is funny. Alley is Gladys Leeman, the organizer (and former winner) of the Mount Rose pageant who will do whatever it takes to ensure her daughter, Becky (Denise Richards) wins this one. Farm accidents, food poisoning, anorexia . . . this mockumentary about a teen beauty pageant has all you'd expect and more.
LOLLILOVE, starring and directed by the beautiful and talented Jenna Fischer, chronicles the selfless generosity of a wealthy woman who wants to use her position in society to make a difference. After several lists and hours of brainstorming, her idea is to pass lollipops out to the homeless. But these are not just any lollipops, they are the kind with the gum inside (besides otherwise, what's the point?) and will feature special wrappers containing her husband's art and inspirational messages to help the homeless maybe not be so darn homeless anymore. The film follows her attempts at finding sponsorship, the negativity she endures from people who just don't understand her vision, and the frustration she feels with her husband who neglects to follow through with the help he has promised her as she desperately tries to help the homeless.
As a scathing and hilarious satire, Fischer strikes oil with LOLLILOVE. A risky maneuver, poking fun at Hollywood and the rich in general as they pursue charitable works not for the recipients themselves but for their own benefit. For those of you who only know Fischer as Pam, beware: she has an edge.
I miss Behind the Music on VH1. As I eluded earlier, I watched a lot of it while I was writing my thesis. I was moved to tears by the Shania Twain and Bob Marley episodes, and was made physically ill by the Ted Nugent one (but not by the whole gun thing, which I'm pretty much whatev about, especially since I don't live in Michigan, but it's his hypocrisy against rockers who use drugs, coupled with his refusal to admit that his womanizing showed as much of a sense of entitlement and weakness of character, if not more, than other musicians in his generation who snorted the coke or drank the whiskey. And he had that sweet girlfriend at home raising his kids. But I digress). So when The Simpsons "Behind The Laughter" (2000) aired, I was tickled.
Not only is the episode narrated by Jim Forbes, the familiar voice of Behind the Music, but it is littered with references to actors, musicians, and celebrity families. And the satire there? Well, if we, the audience, get the jokes and catch the references, then we're just plain too in tune with celebrity goings on, and the joke's on us. Plus, I love that Forbes refers to the Simpsons as a Kentucky family (and then later in repeats as a Missouri family, and who knows what he'll say in the DVD) because it takes a jab at the fans who try to figure out what state Springfield is in. Listen to me now and believe me later: there is no Springfield! Springfield cannot exist in any one state. Springfield is a microcosm of the United States.
UPCOMING DVD RELEASES
If mockumentaries aren't your thing, several DVDs of note are dropping Tuesday, July 8.
- Julien Temple's THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, a documentary on The Clash's Joe Strummer, will be released this Tuesday. It's receiving rave reviews for its craft and honesty as it analyzes the musician through the words of friends and Strummer himself.
- Kimberly Peirce's long awaited second film STOP-LOSS stars Ryan Phillippe and some not so flattering depictions of Texas. Phillippe's character's joy at returning home from the Middle East is cut short when he learns he's been stop-lossed, and is expected to return. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the cutie from Third Rock from the Sun and 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, now all grown up, has received rave reviews on his supporting role.
- LEONARD COHEN UNDER REVIEW is a biography covering the life and art produced by the prolific Canadian writer and singer from 1978-2006. While most of Cohen's more famous works predate 1978, some critics claim Cohen's best work comes from the timeframe covered in this biography.
- Lots of Batman-related stuff. Because THE DARK KNIGHT is coming out Friday, July 18, several cash-in DVDs are being released, including the fifth season of The Batman animated series, BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT (this direct-to-DVD is like THE ANIMATRIX for THE DARK KNIGHT) and Blu-ray and "gift-set edition" (read: make more money by forcing fans to spend another $20 on a DVD that just has a 40-minute blooper reel) of BATMAN BEGINS. Go bat-crazy.
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Every other Sunday
Semi-wholesome Midwestern girl and certified Geek Magnet offers her suggestions - often new, sometimes classic - for DVDs that are definitely queue-worthy.
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| Denise DuVernay |
9 out of 10 librarians think Denise is a hoot. The 10th one couldn't corroborate because she was dead.
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