I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Organising a revival show for three 1960s folk music acts proves challenging for the son of a legendary concert promoter in this mockumentary from Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest. Much of the dialogue is memorable ("abuse in my family... mostly musical in nature") and the film is full of colourful characters, especially Fred Willard's stand-up comedian unaware of his own lameness. In fact, all concerned deliver energetically, and yet the film never coalesces into more than a series of rather random, offbeat episodes, none of which are especially funny. This is a rare comedy for which the audio commentary (by Levy and Guest) is actually funnier than the film itself as Guest keeps throwing in funny lines as "it was my idea to have him... talk" and as the pair discuss the detailed background stories they developed for each and every character (little of which made it into the final film). This perhaps highlights the film's biggest shortcoming: all of the characters are wonderfully imaginative, but the structure of the film never gives us a chance to get to know most of them and feel their anxiety/desire over a comeback. All that said and done, the film concludes on a strong note with a great eventual concert (and lots of memorable songs), but Guest's subsequent 'For Your Consideration' - and his debut 'The Big Picture' - provide a better indication of his talent.

Famed folk music producer Irving Steinbloom is dead and a memorial concert is organized by the Steinbloom kids to feature his three most famous acts; The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey.It's a Christopher Guest mockumentary without his usual big laughs. The characters are handled too gently. There is no edge to the material. It becomes the thing that it tries to mock which is a blend boring documentary of inconsequential matters. Also the stakes for the musicians don't seems to be that high. There is a desperation in Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show that is missing here. These musicians aren't desperate enough for this gig.

A Mighty Wind (2003): Dir: Christopher Guest / Cast: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Michael McKean: Fascinating comic documentary about folk music. Title suggests an emerging of something that once was and will be again. After a folk music promoter dies his son Jonathan decides to reunite talent he represented for a benefit concert. Among those artists are the Folksmen who reunite after thirty years. The Street Singers are very passionate about their involvement. Finally there is Mitch and Mickey who sing "A Kiss At the End of the Rainbow." This opens an interesting subplot regarding Mitch's split with Mickey and the nervous breakdown that followed. Their signature song always concluded with a kiss. Great setup with often amusing interviews with participants. Directed by Christopher Guest who previously made Waiting for Guffman. Scene stealing performances by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as Mitch and Mickey whose scenes provide the best humour. Bob Balaban plays Jonathan who frantically struggles to arrange this event. Fred Willard is always funny and here he makes an appearance and laughs at his own jokes. Then we have Michael McKean jamming away with the Folksman alongside Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. Wonderful portrayal of folk music and a time that will breeze through one more time. Score: 10 / 10

There are two substantial problems with this film, neither making it unwatchable, although I confess they did make me feel uncomfortable. The first is that director Guest cannot capture any of the various "documentary" camera styles widely known with the necessary degree of accuracy; this isn't cinema verite, nor do we get successful sequences of talking heads. Even the concert scenes fail to emulate concert documentaries. Visually, then, we are always reminded that we are not watching a documentary but a mockumentary - we can't really allow ourselves the 'willing suspension of disbelief' such a satire requires from us. This problem is exasperated by some of the actors' performances who are trying way too hard to be funny, rather than play straight and let the ridiculous situations call out laughter.The second problem is more troubling; the music is too good! Most of these songs are not "mock folk music," they ARE '60s style folk songs. Take even the title track: "A Mighty Wind" as a title is amusing in that it evokes flatulence; but by the time you get to such lyrics "a mighty wind of freedom/ blowing for you and me" you wonder where the joke is? That is after all exactly what many folkies thought was going on in the '60s, which makes the song dynamically expressive of that era.Comparisons with "This is Spinal Tap" are of course unavoidable. The songs of "Spinal Tap" came to within a hair's breadth of real heavy metal, but push comes to shove, most real heavy metal songs escape their own pretentiousness by 'rocking out,' they are, bottom line, just variant forms of traditional rock songs; Spinal Tap, to make their point and remain funny, kept their pretentiousness meter pushed to 11.Another issue in comparison indicates where "Mighty Wind" goes wrong. Both heavy metal and folk music had substantial sub-cultures develop around them. But when "Spinal Tap" was released the heavy metal sub-culture was alive and thriving, about to receive new blood with bands in NYC ad LA. The folk music subculture was dead by 1977; a lot of folkies did end up in business or academia and moved quietly into the suburbs (those refusing this route gathered 'round the Grateful Dead, a phenomenon requiring a whole other movie to explore). Consequently, a "where are they now" satire about folk singers ultimately requires a satire on 'midddle America,' and of course that's really too broad a subject for a film that wants so much to highlight the music involved.In short then, "A Mighty Wind" fails to explore humorously the historical dissonance between where folk musicians came from and where they ended up - a dissonance captured powerfully (with much unintentional irony) in the study of Jerry Garcia's friendship with David Grisman, "Grateful Dawg." It's a dissonance strong enough to have fueled the addiction that killed Garcia; it is a dissonance that still quietly influences our current politics and cultural reference points. And while director Guest clearly tries to stab insightfully into the the heart of this dissonance, he doesn't even scratch the surface; that the Folksmen are last seen playing in the foyer of a casino maybe ironic, but since they are, in the last analysis professional musicians trying to earn a living, the irony is all about the casino, not the musicians. Their talent, and the entertainment value of their songs, remain untouched; it is simply not the '60s anymore.Entertaining, but more for the music than the comedy, which is faint praise indeed.