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Waiting for Guffman
Sony Pictures Classics


9.0

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for brief strong language

Starring Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban, and Fred Willard

A town of Blaine, Missouri is preparing for celebrations of its 150th anniversary. Corky St.Clair, an off-off-off-off-off-Broadway director is putting together an amateur theater show about the town's history, starring a local dentist, a couple of travel agents, a Dairy Queen waitress, and a car repairman. He invites a Broadway theater critic Mr. Guffman to see the opening night of the show. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Christopher Guest Eugene Levy
DIRECTED BY:	Christopher Guest
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 21, 2001 Video: July 28, 1998 Theatrical: January 31, 1997
RUNNING TIME:	84 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A madcap gem.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Yet Waiting for Guffman is never mean-spirited. Its weird warmth is perfectly embodied by Guest himself, whose flamboyant, stagestruck choreographer, Corky St. Clair, could have (in less ingenious hands) been a cruel, gay-bashing caricature, but instead becomes a hallucinatory Everyman.

Newsweek David Ansen

The movie is, from start to finish, a hoot... Both a savvy satire of smalltown boosterism and an affectionate salute to the performing spirit. [10 Feb 1987, p.66]

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Thirty minutes into Waiting for Guffman, my stomach hurt from laughing.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

I lost it just watching Corky show off such memorabilia as "My Dinner With Andre" action figures and a "Remains of the Day" lunch box. Priceless.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

The nonstop amusing mockumentary Waiting for Guffman does to small-town acting troupes what "This Is Spinal Tap did to heavy-metal bands."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A sly and gleeful comedy showcase that pokes clever fun at the American musical, amateur theatricals and anything else that's not nailed down.

Film Threat Ron Wells

I saw this movie in a room full of San Francisco movie critics, and I haven't heard that much laughter since, well, the piano duet in "Island of Dr. Moreau" (which you must admit, was pretty funny.)

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

The don't quite do for "Oklahoma!" what they did for heavy metal, but they come close. [31 Jan 1997, p.C6]

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie doesn't bludgeon us with gags. It proceeds with a certain comic relentlessness from setup to payoff, and its deliberation is part of the fun.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A very funny, very unusual ensemble comedy that falls somewhere between slapdash and brilliant, an improvised comedy with more hits than misses. It's also an oddly touching tribute to the joys of show biz.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The humor is uneven and sometimes crude, but much of the mock-documentary is surprising and amusing.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Guest's boldest move is to present the revue in its entirety. It's as if Mel Brooks had shown the complete "Springtime for Hitler,'' the play within his 1968 movie, "The Producers.''

Dallas Observer Peter Rainer

Such a funny mess that it keeps you laughing even when you realize it's not much better directed than a cable-access talk show.

San Francisco Examiner Craig Marine

Nowhere near as funny as "Spinal Tap," but fans of this kind of deadpan humor are guaranteed to get a few chuckles out of this one. All of the actors are marvelously horrible, and in this movie, bad equals good.

Variety Daniel M. Kimmel

The enterprise comes across like a bunch of talented friends making an elaborate home movie for their own amusement.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Feels like an overlong "SCTV" skit. Many prime gags are recycled throughout the film, and, honestly, there's only so much Eugene Levy schtick one can take (though he does get the best Yiddish lines in the film).

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The result isn't very funny: There are clever bits, sure, but they're embedded in long, painfully obvious sequences built around one-shot gags.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

May be amusing if you feel a pressing need to feel superior to somebody, but the aim is too broad and scattershot to add up to much beyond an acknowledgment of small-town desperation--something Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis did much better back in the 20s and 30s.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stalwart R. gave it a10:
I think that you have to have lived in a small town to really appreciate the humour in this film. It's even better if you have participated in community theatre. Seriuosly, I don't think I've ever genuinely laughed as much as while watching this movie. Christopher Guest is my GOD!

Eric gave it a10:
My favorite movie of all time!

Michael M. gave it a 10:
This is Christopher Guest's second best movie (out of 3). I didn't think this was as good or funny as Guest's follow-up film 'Best In Show' which hit theaters in the year 2000. I loved this movie for two reasons, 1) It was done by my favorite comedy troupe, and 2) I am in many productions in community theater, so I kind of related to this in a close way. First of all, not all community theaters do plays this bad, hardly any of them do. This is kind of an a stretch, but it is still funny. Some community theaters put on productions that rival Broadway productions (in my opinion). But this is just so funny, it will make you cry. I think this is just such an excellent film, and gets funnier everytime I watch it. The best things about Guest's films are, no matter how many times you watch them they don't get boring or less funny like most of the Farrely Brothers films. The thing I truly admire of Guest is he doensn't have to use too many raunchy jokes to make the best comedy films. The only reason this film got unfairly slapped with an 'R' rating is because it has the f-word twice. The film 'So I Married An Axe Murderer' starring Mike Myers, features that word three times, and got a 'PG-13' rating. This is a great film for anyone looking to be able to laugh hard, without seven million sex jokes. (21 February 2003)

Pat C. gave it a 2:
Grating & Pointless. Tries to take advantage of the fact that a willingness to make a fool of ones self can pass for talent in the provinces. But the average high school drama want-a-be in any province can muster more talent than what this show portrays. Like similar Best in Show and A Mighty Wind mockumentaries, it means no harm, but unlike them it is exasperatingly unclever and, as becomes redundantly obvious, doesn't have a pulse and is unwatchable.

Dan C. gave it a 9:
Christopher Guest is a genius!

Kathy gave it a 9:
We had to stop the machine we were laughing so hard. As a community theatre buff, we got every inside joke. Guffman is a hoot!

Michelle M. gave it a 10:
I absolutely LOVE this movie!! It is my favorite!! Christopher Guest is my HERO!! It's so funny from begining to end, with out a second in between!!

Waiting for Guffman Sony Pictures Classics

Waiting for Guffman
Sony Pictures Classics