For Your Consideration

The decline of The Christopher Guest Project can be graphed on a steep, sad curve. We start with Waiting for Guffman, naturally, on 11.

If you're a stickler, the embarrassing and literally career-ending Chris Farley vehicle, Almost Heroes, follows, but it's not the product of The Guest Players, and he only directed, so let's throw it out as an anomaly.

Best in Show, may actually be the best in class. I usually slot Guffman higher because of its' formal innovation. But I think Best in Show's subject is more broadly appealing, it's funnier throughout, and then Fred Willard kills. Hell, let's call it a 12.

Then, A (so-called) Mighty Wind blows in like a flute solo. A flute solo played, that is, by anyone other than Ron Burgundy. Or Jethro Tull. (Which, I should mention, is not actually that guy's name. It's Ian something. He's a farmer, which explains why his band's named after the inventor of the seed drill. And he's a flautist. Oh, and don't' forget awesome. Yeah!) But really, folk music? Come on, the stuff is already satirizing itself. And if you handfeed the hippies you'll only encourage them. I give it a 5, a haircut and a punitive scrubbing.

Finally, we have For Your Consideration. I waited for the funny, telling myself we had a lot of characters and just had to knock out some exposition. While still waiting for the funny, I actually snagged a good line to jot in my notebook: "It wasn't the apple in the tree, but the pair on the ground that caused all the trouble." But that strikes me as the type of quip that's been around for 100 years. No points for originality. Plus it's a pun. Do as I say, not as I do. Pun comedy is weak. But so, apparently, am I.

And so I waited yet longer for the funny, assuring myself it was working up to some awe-striking, mind-splitting meta-joke that was larger than the movie itself. And then. It was over. I felt like I'd sat through an Andy Kaufman routine. Or worse, Man on The Moon. Graphically speaking, we're approaching zero to infinity. (And beyond!)