Tall and Mighty

For fans of the TV hit musical comedy series Glee, the big news last week was of course the Emmy Awards. While it lost out the Best Comedy Series to Modern Family, Glee did win the Best Direction. Although I haven't exaclty followed the series at all, I am thrilled that it snatched the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Jane Lynch for her part as Will Schuester's nemesis, the acerbic head cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester.



After years of TV guest roles, Jane Lynch finally established herself as a household name at the age of 50. Standing at six feet, she is also one of the tallest actresses working in Hollywood. But for connoisseur of independent films, Jane Lynch is known as part of the motley crew that includes Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge...etc director Christopher Guest often like to cast for his ensemble comedies.

Christopher Guest is a NYC-born Brit who is famous for directing a few repertory-like comedies in a style that comes to known as mockumentary. Guest was first involved in this genre through playing the lead guitarist in the Rob Reiner’s movie This is Spinal Tap, which follows the concert tour as well as faux interviews of the fictional rock band Spinal Tap. The subsequent cult following of the movie prompted Guest to direct a few more features in this rein to spoof a certain sub-cultural phenomenon of the society, such as community theater in Waiting for Guffman, dog show in Best in Show and my favorite, A Mighty Wind, a movie that is both a parody and a tribute to the folk music revival during the 50s to the late 60s



A Mighty Wind chronicle, due to the recent passing of legendary folk manager Irving Steinbloom, a memorial concert in The Town Hall to reunite three folk groups that Steinbloom has guided to stardom: The Folkmen, played by the exact same three actors who disguised as the rockers in Spinal Tap, The New Main Street Singers, a knockoff of The New Christy Minstrels, and the *former* sweet hearts of the folk music scene Mitch & Mickey. Jane Lynch played Laurie Bohner(wink!), an ex-pornstar who, together with husband Terry Bohner, paradoxically fronts the cheesily colour-coordinated and squeaky clean The New Main Street Singers. Here is a clip of Terry and Laurie explaining how they come to reform the ‘neuftet’, as they describe themselves as:



I like the way how Jane looks all sympathetic and comforting as Terry recalled how he was *musically* abused as a kid and how John Michael Higgins looks increasing uncomfortable as Laurie related her former life as an actress in the adult film industry and how she learned to play the ukulele in her last film Not So Tiny Tim

However, unusual for Guest’s mockumentaries since they are ensemble pieces in general, the focal point of A Mighty Wind is without a doubt the one-time lovebirds Mitch & Mickey. Mitch Cohen and Mickey Devlin met each other through a gig at a folk cafe in NYC during the 60s and it was a love at first sight. Soon they hooked up to form the folk duo and released a series of records that soaked with "true love".







In one of their signature songs, A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, it featured a stage kiss that comes to symbolize their devotion to each other. Mitch and Mickey are brilliantly played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, who are perhaps better remembered as the dad in American Pie and the mom in Home Alone respectively. Both hailed from Canada, Eugene and Catherine actually dated all the way back to the 70s in a sketch comedy show called SCTV (Second City TV), sort of like a Canadian version of Saturday Night Live which unfortunately has overshadowed SCTV. Because of their long history, Christopher Guest like to pair Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara together in his movie and the result is often hilarious, even when both Levy and O’Hara play it straight.




However, as the relationship between Mitch and Mickey started to unravel and finally broke down, they parted way and Mitch went on to a couple poorly received solo releases with increasingly dark tone. It all eventually led to a mental breakdown and a stint at the hospital. As a result, the same kiss comes back to haunt both of them





Now the big question is will Mitch and Mickey be able to bury their differences to reunite for one night? Will they be able to handle the memories brought back by performing together? Will they reenact the kiss when they sing A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow?



Remarkably, while the movie is played for laugh, all the songs featured in the soundtrack are original and genuine folk music. Even more amazing is that they are all written and performed by the cast who also played their own instruments themselves. I bet a lot of listeners would believe they are authentic folk groups if they haven’t been told otherwise. Admirers accustomed to Christopher Guest’s mockumentries are often surprised and moved by the sincerity of the Mitch & Mickey story, of which the song A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow no doubt has added to its poignancy. In fact, it has touched enough people to win the movie an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song

It is an unexpected nomination for a small budget comedy like A Mighty Wind and naturally the cast was thrilled. Much like Mitch & Mickey in the movie, people are anxious to see how Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara would appear on Oscar night now that the stage had been set for them to perform the song. Eugene even quipped that they might pull a wardrobe malfunction stunt a la Janet Jackson, where he will rip Catherine’s dress only to get stuck…. While he didn’t exactly do that but their rendition was definitely a highlight of otherwise yet another dull Oscar show. Unfortunately the Academy is very stringent with their copyright. So even though I have the performance on avi, I cannot post it to YouTube lest they should close my account. But leave to the fans in Asia (Taiwan I believe) who managed to sidestep the legal right by posting the Oscar broadcast on STAR movies. Notice that Eugene and Catherine performed the song in characters, even the announcer introduced them as Mitch & Mickey. I like the way Catherine all choked up with emotion and said “I can’t” when Eugene made his move to kiss her. Comedy at its most sublime



As a tradition, all Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries always end with a "six month later" segment where it will catch up with all the major characters half a year after the event that bring them together. A Mighty Wind is no exception; turned out everyone except Mitch and Mickey themselves took their reunion much more seriously than it actually was.



Well they certainly had us fooled :-)