The humor is implied but never over-explained, imparting a sense of intelligence rarely achieved in movie comedies.
Comment
05/14/03
Waiting for Guffman (1997)
91
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:48
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: This riotously deadpan mockumentary about aspiring community theater performers never stoops to ridicule oft-ridiculous characters.
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: This mock documentary, set in the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri, chronicles the attempts of its talent-free residents to put on a show celebrating the burg's 150th anniversary. From the fey... [More]
Starring: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Catherine O'Hara
Director: Christopher Guest
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Reviews for Waiting for Guffman
There is such a thing as comic momentum, and Guest has a good sense of what that means. Comic momentum doesn't refer to nonstop jokes, but to an atmosphere that is always ripe for humor.
01/01/00
Top CriticIt often equals and sometimes surpasses the deadpan humor of [Spinal Tap] (save the grinding guitars and leather pants, of course).
01/01/00
Guest is the best thing in this slight, sometimes strained, but often quite funny film
08/20/01
Attention is paid not simply to funny characters and punch lines, but to small nudges at human nature.
01/01/00
Top CriticGuest's satire of small-town America and amateur actors has a sly edge, it's not mean, and Guest never strips his characters of their dignity.
06/23/04
Though each of the actors generates moments of hilarity, Guest's Corky St. Clair is clearly the film's most memorable character.
01/01/00
A madcap gem.
02/27/07
Top CriticGuest has fashioned the film with a great deal of affection. The charm goes a long way toward making the material amusing instead of insulting.
01/01/00
The songs (co-written by Guest and Tapster Harry Shearer) are suitably ridiculous and the deadpan gags come thick, fast and too numerous to mention, all delivered with knuckle-gnawing subtlety by the C-list cast with A-list style.
08/12/08
Ignorance truly is bliss, sometimes.
01/01/00
Be sure and stay for the film's closing credits, which contain some of the movie's funniest moments.
01/01/00
Where This Is Spinal Tap took rock music and the media as its focus - fat, juicy targets just asking to be lampooned - Guest's target here is small-town provincials.
05/14/04
Top CriticA very funny, very unusual ensemble comedy that falls somewhere between slapdash and brilliant, an improvised comedy with more hits than misses.
04/12/02
Top CriticTheir characters needed an air of authenticity and credibility that these actors simply lack.
01/01/00
A sly, gleeful and subtle comedy that pokes fun at American musicals, amateur theatricals, and the culture of celebrity-the universal wish to be famous--set in the small, provincial town of Blaine about to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
09/19/06
Waiting for Guffman is worth a little chuckle, but that’s about it.
01/01/00
Fans of this kind of deadpan humor are guaranteed to get a few chuckles out of this one. All of the actors are marvelously horrible, and in this movie, bad equals good.
01/01/00
Frequently funny -- sometimes very funny indeed.
08/12/08
Hilariously satirical yet affectionate and upbeat about its rosy-cheeked, anti-hip characters.
10/15/02
Latest News for Waiting for Guffman
August 18, 2008:
RT Counts Down the Best-Reviewed Theater Movies of all Time!
Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats: the countdown is about to begin. We at RT have raised the curtain on "The Play's the Thing," a list of the 25 best-reviewed films... More...
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