“HEY NONNY NO, NANNY NINNY NO”

By Raymond Benson

The Christopher Guest “Ensemble” was on a roll after the success of the wonderful Best in Show (2000), which in turn was the follow-up to the brilliant Waiting for Guffman (1996). I informally call it the “Ensemble” because actor/writer/director Guest tends to make ensemble pictures featuring a stock company of ridiculously talented comic actors. Not all the actors appear in each Christopher Guest movie, but familiar faces are in every title.

It all began, really, with This is Spinal Tap (1984), which Guest did not direct (Rob Reiner did), but Guest and his partners in comedy, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, were likely the driving forces behind this “mockumentary” about a fictional rock band. The mockumentary genre, of course, is a comedy that is presented as if it’s a documentary. Spinal Tap was a massive hit and became a cult movie. It wasn’t until a little over a decade later that Guest pulled together some of the same creative team to make Guffman, which was about a small town community theatre (McKean and Shearer do not appear in it, but they co-wrote the songs with Guest). More importantly, the film featured the fabulous SCTV alumni Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, who are today basking in the deserved success of their TV show Schitt’s Creek. Other Guest stalwarts were in the cast as well, such as Fred Willard, Parker Posey, and Bob Balaban.

Best in Show was next, and this time McKean was back along with Levy, O’Hara, Posey, Willard, and others. This one, about the world of dog shows/competitions, was extremely popular, and it paved the way for A Mighty Wind, a send-up of the folk music scene of the 1960s. Interestingly, the Coen Brothers tackled the same subject a decade later with Inside Llewyn Davis in a more serious vein, but the brothers put together an authentic live concert featuring many real folk acts in much the same way that A Mighty Wind brings together several fictional folk acts for a contemporary reunion concert in the film.

The Spinal Tap boys are back (Guest, McKean, Shearer) as The Folksmen. The New Main Street Singers is a parody of a New Christy Minstrels-style large ensemble group and feature John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Paul Dooley, and others. Finally, the duo Mitch & Mickey (Levy and O’Hara) were a couple back when they made records, but there was a painful breakup. They haven’t spoken in decades—but they’ve agreed to perform again for the reunion concert being mounted by the promoter and son (Balaban) of the bands’ deceased music producer.

All of Guest’s films are improvised by the cast. In many ways, Guest is the Robert Altman of comedy. Every performer here nails his or her character—and they’re all excellent singers and musicians to boot! The songs are clever and hilarious, especially those by The Folksmen. Mitch & Mickey’s love ballad, “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” is such a crowd-pleaser that it was nominated for Best Song at the Oscars (written by McKean and Annette O’Toole) and both Levy and O’Hara performed it at the Academy Awards ceremony of 2004.

The Warner Archive has ported over their original DVD to high definition, and it looks great. All of the supplements from that edition are present, too—a wonderful audio commentary by Guest and Levy; loads of deleted and additional scenes; the complete reunion concert without edits; the complete “vintage TV appearances” by the bands, of which only excerpts are seen in the finished film; and the theatrical trailer. This reviewer especially likes the deleted scene in which The Folksmen argue about the lyrics to a song that contains the phrase, “Hey Nonny No, Nanny Ninny No”—or is it “Hey Nonny No, Nonny Ninny O”? (Apparently there’s an iron clad rule—Nonny comes before Ninny!) Oddly, the only supplement from the DVD that does not appear here are the “biographies” of the bands that were static screen text displays, but this being missing is negligible.

A Mighty Wind is well worth the upgrade to Blu-ray. The movie is a heck of a lot of fun, full of laughs and charm, and you’ll find yourself humming the tunes later. Highly recommended.

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