Results tagged “amightywind”

Native New Yorker Michael McKean is so identified with his ensemble work in Christopher Guest’s films – This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration – that it’s easy to forget that he created the iconic Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski in Laverne & Shirley some 32 years ago. What a long, strange career it’s been, with parts in almost-entirely forgotten films like Steven Spielberg’s 1941, hits like Clue and, in the 90s, a stint as the oldest person to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. In between there’s been a whole lot of supporting roles (his IMDB page counts 174 in film and television) as well as plenty of stage work; in 2004 he took over for Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway production of Hairspray. McKean is now onstage again and very funny in the must-see revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, which also stars Eve Best, Ian McShane and Raúl Esparza.

Some fun Guest stuff for all you bastard people: A Fame Audit from Fametracker, an interview with Movie City News and Caryn James' feature on the retrospective in today's Times. It seems that Guest has always wanted to just do only three "mockumentaries" and that he doesn't really like TV except The Office. And Gothamist once shared an elevator with Guest when he was promoting Almost Heroes (Matthew Perry and Chris Farley as 18th century explorers - not being shown in the tribute). Guest asked us what we thought of his seersucker suit, and Gothamist couldn't help ourselves when the words "It's kinda Matlocky" came out. But we didn't mean Matlocky in a bad way!

Gothamist agrees with many (but not Moulin Rouge - meh), but would have to consider many others, like Almost Famous, A Star is Born, Amadeus, Hard Day's Night, A Mighty Wind, The School of Rock, plus the genre of movie musicals (Annie, The Muppet Movie, Kiss Me Kate, The Sound of Music) if we came up with our own list. And then there are the movies and filmmakers that aren't about music but their soundtracks change that: Anything by Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Cameron Crowe, John Hughes, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and Quentin Tarantino, plus Trainspotting, Brown Sugar, Dazed and Confused, Ocean's Eleven (the remake)...what are we missing?

I would say that almost all the interviews-- 95% plus --focus on McNamara, and not on the film as a film.

And Sting, Dave Matthews, and Vince Gill were like the bad Beatles cover bad at the crappy bar mitzvah. The best moment was Andre 3000's short and sweet acceptance speech for best rap album.

Many wonder what is the use of following these critics' awards, since they are only directionally useful in wondering who will win the Oscars, an imperfect process also. Gothamist ventures to say that when things move us, we want to talk about it, think about it, tell others about it. Movies are a reflection of who we are and become calling cards of ideas and dreams to other places, whether it's to a rural farm town in Nebraska or an emerging metropolis like Shanghai. Sure, there's an amount of unspeakable crap, but it's also nice to see that some exceptional work is being recognized.

Gothamist enjoyed Elvis Mitchell's piece about Christopher Guest in yesterday's Times because if there's one that we all need more of, it's generous-hearted satire. Guest was one of the masterminds behind This is Spinal Tap (besides playing Nigel Tufnel), and he wrote and directed Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.