OVP: A Mighty Wind (2003)

Film: A Mighty Wind (2003)
Stars: Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge
Director: Christopher Guest
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

There are few cinematic phenomenons I get less than the films of Christopher Guest.  And lord knows I've tried.  A Mighty Wind is the third Guest film I've seen, and I've also caught Spinal Tap, which isn't directed by him but is written by him.  However, A Mighty Wind is an Oscar nominee (for Best Original Song, and yes, our theme this week is Oscar-nominated music!), one of the few of his films to get such a distinction, and so it was inevitably going to come up...it's just strange to have it come up in 2020.  Because while I don't like Guest's films, I fell pretty damn hard during the early weeks of quarantine for Schitt's Creek, which stars two of his key players (Eugene Levy & Catherine O'Hara), and so I was curious upon revisit if I'd feel more at home in their world, seeing these two actors who I have a different appreciation for coming to life in Guest's universe.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is a mockumentary that takes place in the wake of the death of a folk music producer, who worked with some major acts of the 1960's.  His son Jonathan (Balaban) is putting on a festival as a sendoff for him, and as a result is reuniting a variety of groups from the era, including the Folksmen, New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey, the latter of whom are played by Levy & O'Hara as a romantic duo that eventually grew apart.  As the giant concert approaches, Mitch, in particular, seems reluctant to embrace his potential reunion with Mickey, while the other groups start to have their hopes set high that this could be their big break.  In the end, it isn't, of course, but we do have a beautiful moment where Mitch & Mickey share a tender kiss, and everyone acknowledges that there might have been something special to their act after all.

The film frequently mines the characters' and their lives as once famous singers for laughs, but also has a bit more heart than you'd expect-there's less bite & willingness to skewer these people than you'd see in Spinal Tap or Waiting for Guffman.  I liked this-I don't subscribe to humor that cruelly mocks people, even if they are ridiculous.  But I also feel like it undersells, then, some of the characters onscreen.  Jane Lynch & John Michael Higgins are gifted comedians, but there's too many nuances to their relationship (she's a former porn star who is obsessed with the spiritual power of colors, he's a clearly repressed gay guy who lets her control his life for inexplicable reasons) and not enough time to explore it.  I kind of get why this was a middling film in Guest's filmography for his fans-there's not much there, and it doesn't have much snap.

But it's impossible to deny the "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" scene works flawlessly.  Sometimes it feels like Oscar should get rid of the Best Original Song category because there just aren't enough movies that make good use of songs, but this is a testament as to why it should stay.  The song is not meant to be mocked-it's beautifully-written amid other tunes that feel a bit cliche, and there's actual talent onscreen.  It reminded me a lot of when, after seeing the pablum that the other characters have in Nashville, what it's like when Ronee Blakley's Barbara Jean comes out and can actually live to up the hype that's been built around her singing & performing abilities.  We see that there was something beautiful to their time together, and in one song, a lifetime of "what if's" get to temporarily be relived.  The song made me cry, a lot-it's such a tender moment in the film, and while it's hard to tell whether I'm crying because of my now more deeply felt (because of Schitt's Creek) cinematic relationship with the actors or because it just works onscreen, the entire movie is kind of worth it just for that moment, even if it never approaches earning such a scene.