A Mighty Wind

Rating:

Hippies, Unite!

Main Cast: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, John Michael Higgins

Director: Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest is back again with another mockumentary, this time taking aim at the folk singing phenom of the flower-power 60s. I must admit that A Mighty Wind, of the other three I’ve seen, resonates the least. Then again, I was only born at the end of the ’60s so I missed out on many of the sly digs and dead-on portrayals that I know must have been made in the movie. In any case this is the story of three different folk bands, all united together in paying (and playing) a tribute to an old friend and mentor who died. They band together in New York City for one great concert at the town hall.

The center performers are Mitch and Micky, played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. They were much in love back in the ’60s but drifted apart. I don’t blame her, as Mitch seems to be a man barely of this world, and has been in and out of mental institutions. But that doesn’t stop the show by any means.

Great fun is also made of the other groups, from the Folksmen (relatively normal, except for the bass player and his hand cream…) to the New Main Street Singers, a commercialized version of folk singing, if that could be possible: and it is! They are managed by the crazy Fred Willard, who once again plays an inspired looney who is so over the top as to be on the moon.

A Mighty Wind is a fun movie, keeping the tradition of the others with many improvs and dead-on speeches to the camera. It traces the bands from the ’60s and where they are now, and I think does a good job of painting a picture of the time. Pretty good stuff, and if you liked the other mockumentaries created by Guest and Levy, you’ll definitely like this one.

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