Many of you know that I've been listening to a lot of new music that's been recommended to me by other people (because I decided it was time to broaden my interests, or actually listen to complete albums of groups that "I've been a fan of for years" because I liked a couple of random songs they did six years ago) because I put out a plea to save me from possibly drowning under the five artists I listen to. The challenge has been met.
In any case, those who know me the best have been giving me some great recommendations (The Decemberists = Awesome) and most of the music is around the folk/lighter rock vein (no big surprise there) and in listening to all this new music, it reminded me that I haven't seen one of my favorite movies in quite some time: the Christopher-Guest-troupe-takes-on-folk-music A Mighty Wind.
Of all the Christopher Guest "mockumentaries" (I put that in quotes because he hates the term, and yet, I didn't want to waste unnecessary prepositional phrases to describe it, which sounds paradoxical since I've added this entire parenthetical to explain the two sets of quotation marks, but I'm okay with it, so you have to be to. So there.) A Mighty Wind is absolutely my favorite. I will always love Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy as Mitch & Mickey, the sweethearts of the folk music scene, who were popular for their song, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" (which, wonderfully enough, was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar, though it lost to the boring-but-haunting "Into the West" from LotR:TRotK). Their chemistry and musical harmony are the best part of the movie (evidenced even more beautifully in the song "When You're Next to Me" - find it online and listen to it!).
The premise of the movie is that a pioneer folk music promoter and producer has died and his children are throwing a memorial concert with three of the acts he worked with back in the 60s - the aforementioned Mitch & Mickey, the saccharine "neuf-tet" named The New Main Street Singers (John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, and Parker Posey are the noteworthiest members), and The Folksmen (Guest, McKean, and Shearer from This is Spinal Tap). The movie's fake documentary crew follows the event's organizers and acts prior to, including, and after the show (including the part where Michael Hitchcock raps Bob Balaban on the head, which nearly made me choke with laughter the first time I saw it) and it still makes me fall in love with the songs and characters and stories, even after the millionth or so viewing.
Score: 9.5/10
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