"Waiting for Guffman" (1996): THE FINEST assemblage of straight-faced comedians in all of history, create one of THE funniest movies EVER. "Waiting for Guffman" is about humans with more than enough faith...AND self-delusions. Christopher Guest is the driving force, both in front of and behind the camera, and along with Eugene Levy, portray a small town's population creating a small play about their small history, which is a VERY BIG deal to them. Guest's consistent theme (throughout his films) is about humans who don't have enough insight or talent to spot the lack of it within themselves. There is an incredible blind faith, tenderness and embarrassing, misguided drive within these people. And yet, within their little world, they support the dreams for one another, and move through their lives with solid delusion. "This is Spinal Tap", "Best in Show", and "A Mighty Wind" are other great examples. Guest also has the sense to call back his actors for further projects. This is brilliant work.

Waiting for Guffman is a mockumentary about a small town putting on a production in hopes of making it to Broadway. This new acting trope is led by rather eccentric Corky St. Clair(Christopher Guest), and consists of two travel agents(who have never left town), A Dairy Queen employee, a rather geeky dentist with a lazy eye, and so much more. The movie follows these cast of players with the support of the town, as they put on a production called, "Red, White, and Blaine"(Blaine being the town they live in).What is best about this movie is that the only scripted scenes were that of the actual play. Everything else is completely ad-libbed which makes this movie genuine and just downright funny. Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, in my opinion, are purely brilliant. The plot works, the characters are so offbeat and hysterical that I can still recall almost every single line they said.All in all, Waiting for Guffman is perhaps one of, if not the, funniest movie I have ever seen. 9/10.

"Waiting for Guffman" may just be that rare thing: the perfect comedy.It's brilliantly (and I don't use that word lightly) written and acted. I think it would be easy to dismiss the talent that went into this film, because it looks so effortless on screen, but you would have to be a wonderful actor to make material this subtle and dead pan work as well as it does here."Guffman" is better than any of the follow up films Christopher Guest and his recurrent ensemble have made since because it doesn't stretch itself too thin. Guest focuses on a handful of main characters, and all of his other players get much smaller but no less hysterical roles to play. This is in sharp contrast to his most recent movie, "For Your Consideration," in which he tries to give everyone equal screen time with the results being that everyone gets short changed.I grew up in a tiny town of 500 people in rural Illinois, and I remember our town celebrating its bicentennial. We even had a little pageant full of skits (I had a part in it myself). And I have to say that it was EXACTLY like this movie. The actors don't even have to exaggerate much to capture that feeling of small-town folks who take themselves and their little village ultra-seriously.Councilman/Pharmacist: "Corky, our budget for the entire year is $50,000, and that includes swimming." Corky: "Well, I don't have any swimming in my show." I'm sorry, but if you can't understand why an exchange like that is funny, I can't help you.Grade: A+

The current climate of cinematic comedy is comparable, to an extent, to the trend in horror: everything is geared toward pull-out-all-stops excess that is more disgusting than entertaining. We should thank our lucky stars for Christopher Guest, a consistently surprising filmmaker (he directed "Best in Show" and wrote "This is Spinal Tap") who makes 'mockumentaries' that play like actual documentaries. "Waiting for Guffman" follows Corky St. Clair (Guest), a flamboyant stage director who gathers a group of 'eclectic' locals (a cross-eyed dentist; a husband-and-wife travel agent team; a Dairy Queen employee) for a production about the sleepy town in which they live (its claim to fame being home of the footstool). There is a hilarious authenticity to the behind-the-scenes footage, but the film never laughs at its subjects--as viewers, we share Corky's (admittedly delusional) passion with bittersweet good humor. The supporting cast--consisting of Guest regulars Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, and Larry Miller--is in top form here. "Waiting for Guffman" is a quiet comedy gem about a dull, quiet town. And it's also ridiculously rated "R" for two quick instances of F-word usage (way to call it, MPAA!).