Post by Fatal Rewind on May 2, 2021 20:19:10 GMT -5
Here's a movie probably hardly anyone on here as seen, and not just due to its paltry take of only $18 or so million, but also that it seems like it wasn't released in non-U. S. countries, which is a shame, as it should've done way better.
My introduction to this great movie was really confusing: due to taking a chance on the below video sometime in the last year on YouTube, I clicked on it.
Great song (in my opinion)! However, even though this was obviously done in the 60s, how come the quality was really good? Who were The Folksmen? A comment on there was also mystifying, saying "it's always funny when one of the fake groups is better than the real ones, lol".
But then finally another comment clarified everything, stating it was from the movie A Mighty Wind.
Then the other month I happened upon the dvd at a resale shop, so I immediately snapped it up and started watching it that night.
A superstar manager of several legendary folk bands passed away; one of his sons wants to reunite them with a live tribute concert. These groups include The New Main Street Singers, which I think the original group was called The Main Street Singers, but one of their offspring, years later, reformed it with possibly only one original member left (need to watch it again to make sure) and recruited several brand new members, making them looked on as sellouts as other groups such as The Folksmen claim they "suck". They also seem squeaky clean with their biblical lyrics but live an alternative lifestyle that many people in general frown on (which is hilarious and you won't see it coming!). Another group is the former sweetheart duo of Mitch and Mickey, which splintered when their relationship went sour (leaving Mitch as a basket case even decades later), and The Folksmen didn't have any drama, it seems that they just quit communicating over the years...until the very end when there's a surprising revelation (also hilarious and you also won't see coming!).
Totally shot in the documentary style with interviews and the like, this moves briskly at only an hour and a half with a lot of snappy dialogue. It's very simply laid out with its micro-thin plot, but the characters are what make this up though, as you've got musical genius Christopher Guest as one of The Folksmen, along with a guy who does voices on The Simpsons (not saying which one but you should recognize him instantly), Jayne Lynch and Parker Posey make up members of The New Main Street Singers and Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara make up the doomed lovey folk duo Mitch and Mickey. However, one of the manager's sons has been all over the place, which I recognized him from an episode of Seinfeld, the other one from commercials. Fred Willard (R. I. P. to him) plays an annoying, failed comedian who can't figure out his act never took off, Ed Begley Jr. plays one of the people behind the scenes in getting the concert off the ground and reminds us he had a minor hit in Sweden a couple of decades before (big deal!), and there's even this one guy (no idea what his name is) that tells of the acoustics in the concert hall, trying to pass himself off as a singer (which he can't, he's HORRIBLE!).
Several people play their own instruments as well, such as Guest, Levy and Lynch; O'Hara and Posey did as well but they had to learn how to play theirs.
There's only two things I didn't like about this, one was that, near the end, one of the groups pulls a really nasty stunt on another one during the live concert. Instead of making a dramatic turn it was just blown off and nothing ended up happening. It's like the writers came up with the idea for a potential bit of conflict but couldn't figure out what to do with it, just abandoning it. I also didn't like Levy's character, as, even though he kept up with his delivery, I found it to be annoying with his funny voice and the pauses he took as he spoke. Usually the guy does no wrong and maybe it was just me but I just wanted him to either speak in a real voice or shut the hell up. Other things he did during the movie were hilarious though, of course.
This is a really funny movie and should've done at least three times the business that it did. I don't know what happened, if they had like zero budget to promote it with but it hardly did anything at the box office. Nice that the Mitch and Mickey song was nominated for an Academy Award that year for Best Song but that was about it. The trailer's funny enough as it is, so that shouldn't have been the problem (even trailers for good movies like the first one for Finding Nemo can suck, but then even sucky movies can have totally good trailers, so I guess that doesn't really mean anything).
Still, with Guest and Levy writing this, they should be very proud of the movie. One thing that was surprising is I don't think there's a single curseword in there, although a few sexual jokes, but they're not bad though. An almost totally squeaky clean movie here (not *quite* for The New Main Street Singers and the like though).
My introduction to this great movie was really confusing: due to taking a chance on the below video sometime in the last year on YouTube, I clicked on it.
Great song (in my opinion)! However, even though this was obviously done in the 60s, how come the quality was really good? Who were The Folksmen? A comment on there was also mystifying, saying "it's always funny when one of the fake groups is better than the real ones, lol".
But then finally another comment clarified everything, stating it was from the movie A Mighty Wind.
Then the other month I happened upon the dvd at a resale shop, so I immediately snapped it up and started watching it that night.
A superstar manager of several legendary folk bands passed away; one of his sons wants to reunite them with a live tribute concert. These groups include The New Main Street Singers, which I think the original group was called The Main Street Singers, but one of their offspring, years later, reformed it with possibly only one original member left (need to watch it again to make sure) and recruited several brand new members, making them looked on as sellouts as other groups such as The Folksmen claim they "suck". They also seem squeaky clean with their biblical lyrics but live an alternative lifestyle that many people in general frown on (which is hilarious and you won't see it coming!). Another group is the former sweetheart duo of Mitch and Mickey, which splintered when their relationship went sour (leaving Mitch as a basket case even decades later), and The Folksmen didn't have any drama, it seems that they just quit communicating over the years...until the very end when there's a surprising revelation (also hilarious and you also won't see coming!).
Totally shot in the documentary style with interviews and the like, this moves briskly at only an hour and a half with a lot of snappy dialogue. It's very simply laid out with its micro-thin plot, but the characters are what make this up though, as you've got musical genius Christopher Guest as one of The Folksmen, along with a guy who does voices on The Simpsons (not saying which one but you should recognize him instantly), Jayne Lynch and Parker Posey make up members of The New Main Street Singers and Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara make up the doomed lovey folk duo Mitch and Mickey. However, one of the manager's sons has been all over the place, which I recognized him from an episode of Seinfeld, the other one from commercials. Fred Willard (R. I. P. to him) plays an annoying, failed comedian who can't figure out his act never took off, Ed Begley Jr. plays one of the people behind the scenes in getting the concert off the ground and reminds us he had a minor hit in Sweden a couple of decades before (big deal!), and there's even this one guy (no idea what his name is) that tells of the acoustics in the concert hall, trying to pass himself off as a singer (which he can't, he's HORRIBLE!).
Several people play their own instruments as well, such as Guest, Levy and Lynch; O'Hara and Posey did as well but they had to learn how to play theirs.
There's only two things I didn't like about this, one was that, near the end, one of the groups pulls a really nasty stunt on another one during the live concert. Instead of making a dramatic turn it was just blown off and nothing ended up happening. It's like the writers came up with the idea for a potential bit of conflict but couldn't figure out what to do with it, just abandoning it. I also didn't like Levy's character, as, even though he kept up with his delivery, I found it to be annoying with his funny voice and the pauses he took as he spoke. Usually the guy does no wrong and maybe it was just me but I just wanted him to either speak in a real voice or shut the hell up. Other things he did during the movie were hilarious though, of course.
This is a really funny movie and should've done at least three times the business that it did. I don't know what happened, if they had like zero budget to promote it with but it hardly did anything at the box office. Nice that the Mitch and Mickey song was nominated for an Academy Award that year for Best Song but that was about it. The trailer's funny enough as it is, so that shouldn't have been the problem (even trailers for good movies like the first one for Finding Nemo can suck, but then even sucky movies can have totally good trailers, so I guess that doesn't really mean anything).
Still, with Guest and Levy writing this, they should be very proud of the movie. One thing that was surprising is I don't think there's a single curseword in there, although a few sexual jokes, but they're not bad though. An almost totally squeaky clean movie here (not *quite* for The New Main Street Singers and the like though).
For people who love all kinds of music and want to have a lot of laughs with it. 7.5/10