Due to unforeseen circumstances, which actually affected what I was going to highlight this week, I'm presenting my film "sermon" first. In many ways, this is an extension of what I wrote on 13 September of last year--you can scroll through this blog to see what I wrote then if you're genuinely curious. More on that connection in a bit.
We learned yesterday of the death of Catherine O'Hara at the age of 71. I've been a fan since I first saw her as Winona Ryder's artistic/eccentric stepmother Delia in 1988's Beetlejuice. She's one of a handful of actors who could appear in a bad movie, and I would still watch it, knowing it's bad, just to see her performance because I know that part of the film will still be great.
She first came to prominence as an original cast member of the Canadian sketch comedy series "SCTV" alongside such comic legends as John Candy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy. After appearing in American films like After Hours and Heartburn, she endeared herself to audiences in this country, playing small and large parts in film and television ranging from Home Alone to "Six Feet Under."
On a personal note, what kind of mother gets away with forgetting her kid not once, but TWICE? How did Child Protective Services not intervene?
As much as I've enjoyed watching her through the years, I was never more delighted than when she acted alongside her "SCTV" co-star Eugene Levy. There was an on-screen chemistry between the two of them that was hard to ignore and was a joy to watch. And I don't know why I've never made time to watch "Schitt's Creek," but I think I may have to make it a priority now.
O'Hara and Levy became part of a stock company of players who appeared in "mockumentary" films directed by Christopher Guest which he also co-wrote with Levy. In these films, Guest and Levy would give a basic outline for the story and plot and then the actors would ad-lib all the dialogue. I really love these movies. Knowing that even the actors didn't know what they were going to say until they actually said it makes those movies even funnier and real to me than a standard, scripted comedy. I always admire someone who can ad-lib well--it's not a skill I possess. To me it adds an element of danger to the proceedings. Everything can change in an instant based on what one character decides to say. This week's film is perhaps my favourite of the bunch.
Irving Steinbloom has passed away at the age of 83. In the early 1960s, he managed some of the biggest folk music acts of the day including The Folksmen, Mitch and Mickey, and The Main Street Singers. His son Jonathon (played by Bob Balaban) has decided that the best way to honour his father is with a tribute concert at New York's famed Town Hall, to be broadcast live on public television, featuring a reunion for those big acts his father guided 40 years earlier.
Throughout the film we watch The Folksmen (Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean), Mitch and Mickey (Levy and O'Hara) and The New Main Street Singers (a "neuftet" that includes Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, and "original member" Paul Dooley) as they reunite and rehearse for the upcoming show. Through "on-camera interviews," we're treated to their back stories and find out what brought these musicians together in the first place and, in some cases, why they haven't performed together in many years. The film is a wonderful tribute to the folk music of the early 1960s--equal parts laugh out loud funny and touching. From 2003, this week, please enjoy A Mighty Wind, co-starring Jim Piddock, Fred Willard, Michael Hitchcock, Larry Miller, Jennifer Coolidge, and Ed Begley Jr.
(NOTE: Eagle-eyed and dorky readers (and I mean that as a tremendous compliment) will have noticed that Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean who play the Folksmen, also played the English heavy metal trio Spinal Tap in 1984's This Is Spinal Tap and last year's Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The Folksmen actually started out as a "Saturday Night Live" sketch during the show's tenth season when Guest and Shearer were cast members and McKean hosted. When the three toured as Spinal Tap in the late 1990s and early 2000s, The Folksmen would frequently open for them. Many audiences booed at the folk musicians, not realizing they were the same musicians who would be playing heavy metal later on.)
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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