Mocking the Mockumentary - Academic Paper

Mocking the Mockumentary

Christopher Guest has become a living legend and auteur through his humorous documentary-styled fiction films, more commonly known as “mockumentaries.” His list of award-winning pictures includes: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. He also starred in and co-wrote This is Spinal Tap. Each film follows a colorful cast of characters as they generally prepare for a final performance and the twists and turns life takes them on along the way. Various actors have parts in more than one of Guest’s mockumentaries, such as Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, John Michael Higgins, Bob Balaban, Larry Miller, and several others. Michael Patrick Jann has also tried his hand at mockumentaries with his 1999 film Drop Dead Gorgeous, which follows the antics of the small town citizens of Mount Rose, Minnesota and the quest to win the town’s annual beauty pageant. But someone is out to get the other contestants as several suspiciously die or are injured. The main stars of the film are Kirstie Alley, Kirsten Dunst, Brittany Murphy, Amy Adams, Allison Janney, and Denise Richards. Guest’s overall presentation of the film from scripting to shooting to upholding a true “documentary feel” and the love of his characters make for a far better film, especially in A Mighty Wind,  than Jann’s conspicuous mockery of small-town pageant life.

            The main difference between the two movies is the script, or lack thereof. For A Mighty Wind and the rest of Guest’s films, the writers, usually he and Eugene Levy, would develop the story and write out the plot, but they never wrote a script. They would give the actors information about the scene they were shooting and then let the actors improvise it.  “It’s always amazing to hear what they come up with,” quotes Guest in the A Mighty Wind commentary. “It’s astonishing.” At several points in the commentary, both Guest and Levy point out moments of exceptional improvisation, such as Fred Willard’s scenes and Jennifer Coolidge’s quote about model trains and their importance “because without them we wouldn’t have the big ones” (A Mighty Wind).  Drop Dead Gorgeous, on the other hand, was entirely scripted by Lona Williams. Many looks and quirks were also scripted, such as when Kirstie Alley is supposed to look “back to [the] camera” (Williams n.p.). Though there is creative license to be had with these characters, there is a lot less mobility than Christopher Guest allows.  Drop Dead Gorgeous is “intended to be a ‘mockumentary’ along the lines of This is Spinal Tap or Bob Roberts, but the production is so obviously rehearsed that the necessary illusion of reality fails” (Persall n.p.).

            What Michael Patrick Jann does that detracts from the somewhat cinema verite feel of Guest’s films is enhance Drop Dead Gorgeous with non-diegetic music. Pop songs and scores are overlaid onto the audio accompanied by modern montages of scenery. The opening sequence of credits and music makes it clear that this is still a Hollywood movie, whereas Guest’s films hardly have opening credits at all. Normally just the title is shown. No actors’ names are displayed at all. The use of non-diegetic music throughout the movie, especially the ending scenes in which the character of Amber Atkins discovers the statewide pageant has been cancelled reminds the viewer that this is a movie, not an attempt at a farcical documentary.

             Guest truly loves the characters he has developed in each of his films. He spends days developing them, often with frequent co-writer Eugene Levy, and they make sure there is a solid backstory to each even if it is not conveyed in the film. In the audio commentary of A Mighty Wind, not once does Guest refer to his characters as crazy or weird. The only word he uses to describe the characters is “bizarre.” But that is because they are. The actors highlight their characters’ eccentricities, not their flaws. No mocking comment is ever made toward them. Michael Patrick Jann and Lona Williams, on the other hand, have the “documentary crew” filming Mount Rose’s beauty pageant ask the contestants questions that are clearly meant to poke fun at both pageant and small town life, highlighting the lack of intelligence many of the characters exhibit. “Jann and screenwriter Lona Williams don’t have any affection for their subjects, turning each tasteless gag into a sucker punch” (Persall n.p.).

For Guest, just because a character is neurotic (i.e. Mitch from A Mighty Wind) does not mean that he or she is present on screen to be exploited. The neuroses morph into laughs at the behaviors exhibited as these characters try to accomplish their somewhat mundane tasks. There is nothing out of the ordinary for folk musicians, dog owners, or aspiring Broadway actors to try to achieve their dreams in the most feasible ways possible for them. But for a mother-daughter-duo to go around killing off other beauty pageant contestants is much more of a stretch when it comes to believability. In 1991, Wanda Holloway was convicted of conspiring to murder her neighbor due to the fact that the neighbor’s daughter received a spot on the school cheerleading squad over Holloway’s daughter. Drop Dead Gorgeous draws inspiration from this national scandal. Though this is an out-of-the-ordinary situation, Drop Dead Gorgeous capitalizes on this absurdity. Guest, meanwhile, draws his inspiration from human quirks and flaws. No well-known national scandal has ever rocked the folk music industry, the dog-showing profession, or the small-town attempt of making a sesquicentennial musical. By drawing from the national scandal, Jann and Williams exploit real people; Guest creates his characters with nothing but compassion for them.

            The plot of Drop Dead Gorgeous is far-fetched. Somebody successfully killing several beauty pageant contestants and severely injuring another one is virtually unheard of. Even Wanda Holloway did not actually murder her neighbor. It is untrue to the characters and the world in which they live. It is too far out there to be believable, and this detracts from the quality of the movie and its attempt at a mockumentary, especially when compared to Guest’s. His stories are believable and ordinary to the point of mundane; his characters make the films funny. Nothing too far-fetched occurs to his characters; they are placed in situations that are fairly routine for them and react accordingly. This works wonderfully for Guest’s formula as he has cranked out successful film after film. For Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and even the less successful For Your Consideration, what is prominent, worthwhile, and

what’s notable about Guest’s movies isn't how much humor he and Levy wring out of their dog people and folk musicians but how much humanity…. It isn't that Guest is afraid to mock his characters; it's that he takes them seriously, even when he's going in for the kill. (Dargis n.p.)

The presence of the film crew in Drop Dead Gorgeous also affects the overall quality and feel of the film. They ask the characters questions about their lives, highlighting not-so-subtle areas of their lives that are easy to make fun of. On occasion the viewer sees a member or two of the camera crew or a boom mike here and there to remind the viewer that it is supposed to be a documentary. The crew also captures certain shots or snippets of conversation that give the viewer more insight to the goings-on in town, specifically events dealing with the suspicious deaths that occurred. This technique is used to push the plot along and create an air of mystery as to “Who dunnit?” There is no suggestion as to a camera crew in any of the movies Guest has directed. Only in This is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary starring and co-written by Christopher Guest, is the audience aware that the film is actually a “documentary” because in the beginning director Rob Reiner, who also acts in this movie as “director” Marty DiBergi, tells the audience so. But Guest’s films are more observational while Jann’s is more participatory. Each filmmaker does include interviews with the characters, which brings in characteristics of the expository mode of documentary filmmaking.

Each filmmaker has similar shooting techniques. For A Mighty Wind, Arleen Donnelly Nelson shot the “whole movie virtually handheld” (Audio Commentary). If the viewer looks closely, he or she can see the slightest wavering of the camera, but this imperfection suggests authenticity, even if it is fake, because it feels true to life and is along the “same unobtrusive lines of a mainstream documentary” (Dargis n.p.). Nobody in real life is going to have a perfectly shot film or home video. Drop Dead Gorgeous has mostly unwavering shots, though there are several that are clearly meant to be oscillating up and down as the “cameraman” of the documentary film crew runs towards or away from something.

What really brings Guest’s films together is how involved the cast and crew are with different aspects of the film. The actors are not just actors; they are contributors to the entirety of the film. This chemistry and camaraderie is apparent by how well the actors work together and the passion they have for their characters. The crew also doubles as extras if need be. For example, in A Mighty Wind, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy (Mickey and Mitch, respectively) wrote several songs together as did Michael McKean (Jerry Palter) and his real-life wife Annette O’Toole (she did not act in the film). John Michael Higgins, who played Terry Bohner, was the vocal arranger for many of The New Main Street Singers’ songs. One of the production heads at Castlerock Entertainment is a musician for Mitch and Mickey, and Sunday Stevens, the second assistant director, plays the stage manager at Town Hall (Audio Commentary). By the time A Mighty Wind was made, many of the cast had collaborated on previous films including This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show. They had the routine down by the time A Mighty Wind was made and the passion they have for what they do is clearly present on-screen and enhances the material. The characters in Drop Dead Gorgeous had far less chemistry than in A Mighty Wind, and the viewer feels that this is a typical Hollywood film in which the actors are just doing their jobs, and they are not doing fantastic work, either. For Michael Patrick Jann, each person in the cast or crew has a specific job and sticks to it, while for Guest the lines blur and the collaboration makes for a better film.

The characters in Guest’s mockumentaries are relatable, despite their neuroticisms, and the viewer finds him- or herself empathizing with the characters. The viewer wants Corky St. Clair (Waiting for Guffman) to get his show to Broadway, because the viewer has been the underdog before and knows what it feels like to strive for success in the face of adversity. The viewer roots for the dogs and their owners in Best in Show because the viewer knows how it feels to win and wants to experience it vicariously again through the dog show. The viewer wants Mitch and Mickey to kiss during “There’s a Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” in A Mighty Wind because the viewer has felt that passion and wants to reclaim it through the duo. But most of all, the viewer wants each of the characters to succeed and finally pull it off and put it all together because that the viewer has failed in life before, and maybe if these characters can do it, so can the viewer.

The viewer grows to love these characters just as much as the movie itself, because without these specific characters, the film would probably be a flop. What would happen if Mitch was not a neurotic, emotionally stunted man broken in pieces when he and Mickey split up? These characters have an underlying goal to succeed, and the struggle for that success is the truth to the films which is what makes them still even more enjoyable. And it is through this that the viewer can see and feel the immense love Guest has for his characters. He, like the viewer, wants them to succeed to the best of their ability. Even if it means losing the dog show, the character still made it that far and still tried. There is always next year. Even if it means after Ode to Irving, the characters go their separate ways, they still gave it one last shot and that inspired them to stay in music, regardless of whether it is playing in a tacky casino or the new song “Sure-Flo” at a medical convention. Even if it means not going to Broadway, the character pulled off a small-town hit musical that will forever be remembered. The viewer roots for these underdogs because the viewer sees himself as these characters and this connection mocks not only the characters but the viewer as he realizes his own neuroticisms and quirks and eccentricities. “Drop Dead Gorgeous simply manipulates the ideas of satire without connecting to the underlying truth” (Ebert n.p.).

To put is simply: Christopher Guest does it better, if not best. Michael Patrick Jann and Lona Williams make a solid attempt at creating a great mockumentary but their success borders on mediocre. The humor is there, and so is the delivery, but the lack of love and underlying truth just does not cut it. The slapstick comedy is less sophisticated and tackier than the subtle English dry humor present at every turn of Guest’s films. The characters are less relatable and the plot goes too far beyond the boundaries of believability for small-town life in Mount Rose, Minnesota. Even if Guest is not the all-around best in show, he still takes first prize at making mockumentaries and poignantly addressing the viewer’s quirks as they are played out before the viewer’s eyes through the colorful, creative, all-star cast that takes the films to a perfect level of comedy mixed with the simple truth.

Works Cited

Audio Commentary. A Mighty Wind. Dir. Christopher Guest. Perf. Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. Castlerock Entertainment, 2003. DVD.

Dargis, Manohla. "MOVIE REVIEW; Mockument to the Past; Christopher Guest Turns His Loving but Ruthlessly Satirical Eye on Aging Folkies." Los Angeles Times: 0. Apr 16   2003. OxResearch; ProQuest Central; ProQuest Health Management.Web. 18 Dec. 2012 .

Ebert, Roger. "Drop Dead Gorgeous Not Drop Dead Hilarious." Niagara Falls Review: 0. Jul 22 1999. OxResearch; ProQuest Central; ProQuest Health Management. Web. 18 Dec. 2012 .

Persall, Steven. "For Laughs, Watch the Real Thing." St. Petersburg Times 23 July 1999,   Weekend; Movie Reveiw sec.: 8. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 18 Dec. 2012.    <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?>.

Williams, Lona. "Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) Movie Script." Screenplays for You. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2012.

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