Christopher Guest’s improvised comedies let people take their peculiar enthusiasms seriously. We admire the care he gives his characters, though his patience with them sometimes exceeds ours.
Fi1m perspective
In Best in Show (2000), Christopher Guest’s Harlan Pepper never seems to suspect that he might be funny. Guest gives the dog-show competitors the same consideration as a director: their hopes count, however absurd their behaviour becomes. We think this is where his comedy works best. He lets people explain themselves without having the actors advertise the joke, and the competition remains important enough to hold our attention. There is affection here, but nobody has been made agreeable for our convenience.
As Nigel Tufnel and co-writer of This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Guest helped establish the improvised rock satire that would shape his directing. His first feature as director, The Big Picture (1989), came before the documentary-style ensembles became his main work. Waiting for Guffman (1996) took that approach into small-town theatre; A Mighty Wind (2003) later applied it to folk music. He keeps choosing people who have a great deal invested in activities that may mean little to anyone else.
The apparent looseness is carefully prepared: Guest works from detailed character outlines and scene cards, leaving the dialogue largely to the cast. In Best in Show, co-writer Eugene Levy also plays Gerry Fleck opposite Catherine O’Hara’s Cookie, and both make embarrassment look like a long-established habit. We laughed at the Flecks and felt protective of them, because neither actor treats their discomfort as something that ends with the joke. Parker Posey’s more abrasive Meg Swan keeps the ensemble from settling into a single comic manner. Guest’s own performance stays unselfconscious beside them.
His weakness is knowing when we have heard enough. In Best in Show, some later exchanges repeat a character’s anxiety without discovering anything further, and Leighton’s shifts between competitors cannot conceal it. By For Your Consideration (2006), the familiar structure had become more predictable. An ensemble can remain pleasant company without finding another joke. Start with Best in Show, with the small warning that Guest is less willing than we are to bring a conversation to a close.
Biography
Christopher Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, is an American-British actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He was born in New York City on 5 February 1948.
Guest co-wrote and appeared as Nigel Tufnel in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He has since written, directed and starred in further mockumentaries including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006) and Mascots (2016). His acting credits include Death Wish (1974), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Princess Bride (1987) and A Few Good Men (1992), in which he played Dr. Stone. He was a cast member on the tenth season of Saturday Night Live.
Guest holds a hereditary British peerage and sat in the House of Lords until 1999. He is married to actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
