Christopher Guest's films have always been very funny. He's a filmmaker who will do anything for a laugh. The genre of "mockumentaries" has always lent it's self to a parody of people who take themselves far too seriously. 'For Your Consideration' is a subversive film in the Guest catalog. It is a movie that celebrates artists taking their craft seriously in a world that is superficial. If we are not counting 'Spinal Tap' than I say this is the most interesting and penetrating mockumentary from Christopher Guest. It is a movie about characters with real emotions.It explores the characters a lot deeper than a lot of his other efforts have. The main leads played by Harry Shearer and Catherine O'Hara are fascinating and undergo an ultimately tragic journey. The script and the performances aren't just about getting a quick quirky laugh. We get to know these characters and honestly feel for them. It comes from the dignity that our leads Shearer and O'Hara try to instill in their characters and from the fact that the film takes acting and the yearning for artistic validation with the utmost sincerity. It takes it a lot more seriously than any of the other fool-hearted quests Guest has put his other characters through. Shearer and O'Hara both have really tragic moments where they degrade themselves to lobby for that Oscar. Shearer appears on a hip hop show and O'Hara with frightening botox appears in a skimpy dress on a Tonight Show rip off. The movie ultimately will not work if our heroes get their nominations but still seeing their dreams crushed is genuinely depressing. These characters aren't left with the naiveté of some of Guest's other films. They are bitter, angry and feel used by the end of the film.

I'm surprised to see some of the reviews here saying this movie was "mean- spirited" (apparently it was making fun of Sally Kirkland, only none of us flyover people got the joke), or that it "missed the mark," and so on. IMHO, "For your Consideration" is one of Christopher Guest's funniest movies.maybe you have to be Jewish to enjoy this film to its fullest. I am fortunate enough to have been raised in that religion, so I thought the whole "Home for Purim" thing was pretty hilarious. Guest isn't an MOT, but co-writer Eugene Levy is, and he's also one of the funniest people in the world. amazing to think that Levy has been a brilliant comic writer and performer for four decades, ever since his days on Canada's SCTV. speaking of SCTV, Catherine O'Hara is also an alum of that show, and she is really outstanding in this. she's funny as always, but she manages to make us care about her character, even as we're cringeing at her facelift and new "hip" wardrobe.the usual gang is back. in addition to the Canadians, there's Parker Posey and Ed Begley Jr. and Michael McKean and Fred Willard. Ricky Gervais and Harry Shearer are also two of the funniest people in the world, and they're in it too.I put this right up at the top of Guest's movies, with "Best in Show." (I don't count "This is Spinal Tap," btw, because Guest didn't direct it, and was only one of four writers.)

Having just searched through 137 IMDb comments (whew!) of Guest's film I was quite surprised that nobody noticed the central in-joke at work here, one that spoiled an otherwise mildly amusing effort for me. I guess you have to be a film industry insider, or at least have a working knowledge of film history, to analyze these seemingly transparent recent movies, and everyone struck out.The central character, played so winningly by Catherine O'Hara, is obviously based on a real-life actress and her Oscar campaign. The real Hollywood actors, namely the typical Academy members who make up the Oscar voting population that selects the nominees annually, will instantly recognize who I'm referring to, even though those intrepid IMDb addicts dropped the ball. The answer is plainly Sally Kirkland, a talented character actress who indeed was nominated for best actress in 1987 for her performance in the indie film ANNA. I knew Sally quite well at the time, and she was completely sincere in the campaign she launched, unsuccessfully, to try and win the coveted Oscar, losing out to Cher for MOONSTRUCK that year. Her campaigning predated what has become merely customary, as the Weinsteins later perfected the art of actively manipulating Academy voters to get annual nominations and wins for their various Miramax (subsequently TWC) films, right up through somehow managing a Penelope Cruz nom for "Nine".Sally's large breast implants are an easy target for O'Hara here, with Willard's funny line about her décolletage after interviewing her post-Oscar snub: "Now I've seen the Grand Canyon". For the uninitiated, if you click on Sally's IMDb page you will see how her face in the '80s/'90s closely resembles the look O'Hara captured in her impressive bit of "frozen visage" acting of the final reels of Guest's satire. I shudder to think of how Nicole Kidman, Jessica Lange and Meg Ryan will fare as potential future targets of the merciless Guest/O'Hara team.We all know from numerous lectures by the latter-day greats like Steve Martin that "comedy isn't pretty". But I was disappointed at Guest and company taking potshots at Ms. Kirkland. She is a sincere artist and while everyone in the entertainment world is out there available for ridicule I was taken aback by the somewhat underhanded, infra dig lampooning here. Knowing Sally I'm sure she took it in her stride when FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION was released, but no one likes to be mocked. Even masochists would prefer some old-fashioned corporal punishment to being humiliated in front of their peers.As an aside, I admire the talent of these comedy geniuses, including Levy and Guest. But I think a telling anecdote of an incident I witnessed long ago shows that many of them have feet of clay. As a film critic I was attending the press screening for about 50 people at Magno on Times Square in NYC in 1980 for the new film THE FIRST DEADLY SIN, starring Frank Sinatra and Faye Dunaway. The film when released soon after was not successful with critics or audiences and proved to be Frank's final big-screen role, in fact his only movie role after 1970. There is an etiquette at press screenings, but not just critics are invited. Sitting near me was Harry Shearer (a key member of Guest's stock company, and of course immortal from his THIS IS SPINAL TAP participation), whom I recognized immediately from his Saturday NIGHT LIVE appearances plus a friend who I couldn't place. Starting a few minutes into the Sinatra film, which was a gritty, NYC-set thriller, the two of them launched into a series of catcalls and shout-out jokey remarks at the expense of the movie that would have made the yet-to-be-invented stars of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 proud, or fit well within the current drag queen-led mocking of movies that goes on weekly at my local Chelsea cinema. I even shushed them (!) to no avail. This uncouth behavior stuck with me, and always made me wonder about the sincerity of comics at the level of talent, which I readily concede, of a Shearer, or a Second City denizen. I know contemporary comedians famously study people they see on the street, subway, etc. in ordinary life to build material, but the disrespectful attitude of Shearer & bud toward Sinatra, Dunaway and their earnest (if not at the top of their game) movie collaborators appalled me no end. It's not surprising that poor Faye met a similar fate the following year with the release of MOMMIE DEAREST, which stands as perhaps the most-ridiculed and campy of modern Hollywood releases.

Stumbled across this is the comedy section at "Video Busters" the other week, a section i thought I'd exhausted."For Your Consideration" is the latest offering from Christopher Guest and co, this time the movie is about a seemingly ordinary movie that out of nowhere gets some Hollywood buzz and greatly excites the crew of newcomers and veterans. That's pretty much the story, but it's not done in their normal mocumentary style, it's more of a movie. The cast is the same, featuring Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard etc. There's also a cameo from Ricky Gervais, albeit it for just a few scenes.Pretty average, and very few laughs. The style didn't work and the characters had little to work with. The last few from these writers has dropped off quite a bit, with "Best in Show" being the last real decent one, largely thanks to Fred Willard. Give it a miss.