Meet the Makers: Christopher Guest

[US-born actor, director, writer, musician, and composer best known for his hilarious mockumentaries, poking fun at heavy metal music, small town theater, dog shows and folk music. Christopher Haden-Guest was born February 5th, 1948, in New York City to an American mother and a British father, Peter Haden-Guest, the fourth Baron of Saling in the County of Essex. Guest is married to well-known actress Jamie Lee Curtis with two children, Anne and Thomas, plus he is the brother of actor Nicholas Guest.] — IMDB.com

After appearing in several movies in minor roles, Guest played the lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel in Rob Reiner’s rockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984), followed by a few seasons as a regular on Saturday Night Live.

Christopher Guest’s first feature film as a director, and easily my favorite, is The Big Picture (1989). The film stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Chapman, a film school graduate who is trying to break into Hollywood after his short film received critical acclaim. Nick quickly learns that getting your foot in the door one thing, but making a career of it is an entirely different beast. Nick soon finds himself giving in to the Hollywood machine, one piece at a time. As a result, Nick and his film gradually become something completely different than he had ever desired. The Big Picture is not a mockumentary, but it is a darkly humorous story that clearly says a little something about Guest’s opinion of mainstream Hollywood and the people who run the business of movies.

Christopher Guest didn’t create the mockumentary genre, but he is basically the the man who knows it best. With This is Spinal Tap, Guest didn’t direct the film, but he did co-write and star. Clearly an influence on where he would take his career, Guest would go on to make four mockumentary films and only two traditional feature films, The Big Picture and Almost Heroes.

Waiting for Guffman (1996) stars Christopher Guest as Corky St. Clair, as eccentric wanna-be theatre director who pulls some naive residents of Blaine, Missouri together to produce a stage performance on the history of their town. The rag-tag group of actors actually believe they have talents and abilities that could send them to Broadway, as they eagerly await the arrival of Mr. Guffman, a New York theatre critic invited by Corky to view their production. This would be Guest’s first run as director of an ensemble mockumentary that features highly talented comedians ad-libbing and improving with merely more than than general story outline as their guide.

Best in Show (2000) takes the same mockumentary formula and applies it successfully to the world of professional dog shows. Guest directs and again stars as well, this time as a man showing his bloodhound. The film also marks the return of many actors from Waiting for Guffman, starting what would become a regular ensemble crew of comedic thespians in all four of Guest’s fake documentaries. Some of these regulars include: Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins.

A Mighty Wind (2003) is a similar use of this new style as Best in Show, except this time the formula is transplanted into the world of folk music. The movie centers on a Woodstock-like reunion of once-were, has-been and never-was folk singers and bands as they come together to lay and reminisce. The result is a humorous look into a culture we normally don’t think much about, but doesn’t quite have the same punch as Guest’s first two outings in this genre.

For Your Consideration (2006) was Guest’s last film in this style, which is a sort of Hollywood take on the Waiting for Guffman concept of minimally talented actors succumbing to their delusions of grandeur as the cast of a small, mediocre film gets wind of a rumor they are in the running for Oscar nominations.

Its unclear whether Christopher Guest will once again return to this style of comedy that is a strange mix of fiction and reality. What is clear is that the success of his films has sparked a few other film-makers to try their hand at the same style of comedy, from Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver to the immensely popular and controversial Borat.