Movie Reviews

In theaters 'For Your Consideration' and also in theaters'Shut Up and Sing'

By: David Coley & John Adicks

Posted: 11/27/06

In Theaters

'For Your Consideration'

It's the end of the year, and the Oscar season is in full swing. Studios are heavily promoting their hopeful contenders, and films either succeed or die miserably in the eyes of the critics and the public.

However, as is often the mantra of Oscar forecasters, "nobody knows anything." This uncertainty gives the characters in "For Your Consideration" their hope and disappointment.

It is the latest comedy from writer/director/actor Christopher Guest, whose previous outings - "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind" - enjoy devoted followings. Released in the midst of all the hoopla it lampoons, the film follows the actors and crew behind the film "Home for Purim," a melodrama about a Jewish family celebrating the favorite holiday of their dying matriarch.

As is traditional in Guest's films, the project is populated by devastatingly na've characters who become so devoted to their cause that they fail to see the reality of their situation. The actors, played by Guest regulars Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer and Parker Posey, soon discover they have caught some "buzz" on the Internet that could lead to their receiving Oscar nominations for their performances.

The ensuing publicity drive and the shooting of the film provide the bulk of the story, as the actors struggle with the possibility of making the "A-list" and being catapulted into the ranks of the best of the best. Equally caught up in the fever are agents, played by Eugene Levy and John Michael Higgins, as well as other behind-the-scenes figures. However, if you have seen a Guest film, you know it will not end well.

It is that predictability that is damaging to the film in some instances. Even though it does not follow the usual "mockumentary" format Guest perfected in his earlier movies, it still carries the same spirit, and with it some of the same gags. This results in a lack of surprise that is often essential to comedy.

The jokes are frequently funny, but at times you get the feeling that you have seen it all before.

Also, because there are so many characters in the film, some of the great actors are under-utilized. For instance, Guest himself, who has proven in the past to be a skilled performer, stays mostly in the background as the director of "Purim." The scenes he has are quite funny, and I would have liked to see more of him.

Also, Ricky Gervais from the BBC's "The Office," who is a welcome addition to the usual Guest team, only has a smattering of scenes as the head of the studio releasing the film, Sunfish Classics.

Despite the problems with the structure and script, the film is consistently funny. The actors are dead-on as usual. Other notable performances include Jennifer Coolidge as the film's batty producer, Fred Willard and Jane Lynch as "Entertainment Tonight"-style hosts, and Bob Balaban and Michael McKean as the film's writers.

If you like Guest's previous films, then you will most likely enjoy this one. It is uneven at times, but loveable for all the usual reasons. Guest has a knack for creating beloved but ignorant characters, people that reflect the everyday despair of failed attempts and crushed hopes.

What better a setting for that kind of story than Hollywood? -David Coley

In Theaters

'Shut Up and Sing'

Hindsight is always 20/20, so it comes as no surprise that The Dixie Chicks documentary, "Shut Up and Sing," is the cinematic equivalent of going to the optometrist.

Shot over the course of three years, "Shut Up and Sing" documents the events leading up to and following lead singer Natalie Maine's declaration at a concert in London that the Chicks are "ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas." It was instant radio death to the most popular female group of all time, and resulted in their vilification on talk radio, in newspapers, and on blogs across the world.

What comes across in the film is that The Dixie Chicks were the victims of a coordinated smear campaign intended to punish them financially and artistically. Directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, "Shut Up and Sing" allows the viewer to be a fly on the wall as the Chicks figure out what to do once they find themselves in the center of this rhetorical storm.

Allowing the band and their management to express themselves through their reactions to the uproar provides a fascinating look into how the Chicks managed the crisis and tried to balance their own free speech against the will of their largely right-wing fan base, and the changes to the band that Maines' comment eventually brought.

Before, where they had mainly sung and performed songs written by other songwriters, the "Bush episode" provided a creative spark which soon grew into a burning flame of anger and frustration which they utilized to answer those critics who labeled them as "unpatriotic."

The filmmakers, through clever editing, expose the inherent hypocrisy and irony of their critics in showing how the Chicks - Americans, born and bred - were lambasted far and wide for criticizing a sitting U. S. president while U.S. soldiers were embroiled in a war to help bring that same freedom of speech to Iraq. Kopple and Peck were masterful in inter-cutting scenes from a Chicks concert in Greenville, S.C., with the now-famous footage of President Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" from an American aircraft carrier.

At the time, the Chicks appeared to be on the wrong side of a furious argument fueled by right-wing media outlets such as The Free Republic. But watching it now and knowing more facts about the fallacious arguments for going to war in Iraq, Bush and his administration - and all those country fans who threw away their Dixie Chicks CDs - look ridiculous in their objections to Maines' exercise of free speech.

This is no "Michael Moore" treatment. The filmmakers offer no commentary on the situation and allow the band members to express themselves. If only country-music fans and America's right-wing ideologues could have extended the same courtesy. -John Adicks