Waiting For Guffman (1996, Christopher Guest) vs. Wild at Heart (1990, David Lynch)
Waiting For Guffman
Christopher Guest directs and stars in a story about a small group of oddly untalented people people from the town of Blaine Missouri who put on a play about the history of Blaine just in time for its anniversary. Ironically enough, Christopher Guest’s character is the director of the play…and also stars in it.
This is a very funny movie. I found myself laughing quite a bit throughout the story. This mostly has to do with the comic abilities of the cast. Waiting For Guffman benefits from a slew of talented and funny actors and actresses. Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Chatherine O’Hara and a hysterical cameo from David Cross (Arrested Development will always rule!) are all colourful and enjoyable. There’s really nothing too serious going on here. No lessons are learned, the viewer isn’t spoon fed any morals or viewpoints either. It’s simply a good laugh. Even the actual play itself about the history of Blaine is quite entertaining (mainly because it’s so cheaply done, but yet has some heart). The characters who are involved really want to put on a good show because, as a character in the film says, Blaine is the heart of Missouri after all. The cast does a swell job of portraying nice, small town folk without making them seem imbecile. A lot of films are tempted to make people from smaller cities seem foolish or an embarrassment to the rest of the world, but Waiting For Guffman avoids this trap. Sure, most of these people have never been outside of Blaine, but they’re still decent. Christopher Guest himself as the ‘married’ (to apparently a women) but yet obviously gay director of the play, hoping to score a return ticket to Broadway, is also very entertaining. I really didn’t have any problems with this film.
Rent the film, slap it on the tele, and have fun for about 90 minutes. It’s worth your time.
Wild At Heart
Some of you are already familiar with my feelings towards David Lynch. Pretentious, intentionally frustrating, time waster, all of these I find are accurate when describing his work (not the man of course, that would indeed be rude). Wild At Heart tells the convoluted story of two lovers, Lulu and Sailor (what?), who hit the road in order to start a new life and escape Sailor’s dark past. However, Lulu’s devious mother vehemently opposes their love and sends a hitman to have poor Sailor killed.
Lynch, if I’ve even remotely understood what he likes to do, enjoys starting with a plot clearly based in reality and then put in on acid, or speed, or crack, or whatever is necessary for that reality based plot to really go on a ‘trip’. There’s strangeness and, to a certain extent, some fantasy to his films. Somehow Wild at Heart manages to be the Lynch film that annoyed me the least. There is a bizarre cuteness about the Dern/Cage couple that does ring true, regardless of how pathetic they are as people. Lulu’s mother (Diane Ladd) is offered a layer of complexity after she’s realized that perhaps sending a hitman to do the job may have been a stupid idea. There’s a bizarre (it’s Lynch, everything is bizarre) night scene in which Dern and Cage witness the death of an unfortunate car crash victim that works very well. A bit of human touch as someone dies…how poetically just!
However, there are far too many characters that simply remained unattainable for me. Dafoe’s character, Freeman’s, and other smaller ones that I just couldn’t make myself like. We also get some vintage Lynch visuals that I’m sure mean something for the story but, as usual, struck me as cold and useless (witch on a broom, lighting of a match, house of fire). There are some scenes that were really annoying, such the vomit scene, the sex torture scenes which leads to a character’s death, Lulu’s mother painting her face in lipstick. What the heck is going on?!
This review has been longer than usual and I apologize for going on a rant. Thanks to those who are still reading. It’s official. I’ve seen enough Lynch films to know that I can’t digest this guy’s work. I respect those who disagree (I was on the losing side in that Cronenberg/Lynch poll not long ago) but I just can’t do it.
Waiting for Guffman is by no mean high class art, but I had fun with it. I didn’t have fun with Wild At Heart.
The past two weekends, the more unique, artsy films won my matchups. The buck stops here. It isn’t out of malice, but Waiting for Guffman goes through, ‘cause I’m sick of waiting for Lynch to make a movie I can stand.