1984's This is Spinal Tap is one of those incredibly influential films. One that spawned immitators, tributes, cultural phenomena and even confusion over whether the story and it's world were real or fiction. The impact went on and on in ever enlarging circles. For me, the finest ripple of the pond is the trio of mockumentaries helmed by the Tap's enigmatic guitarist Nigel Tufnel aka Christopher Guest: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000) and A Mighty Wind (2003).
These three are undoubtedly all top tier comedy, and good drama also. There are laugh out loud moments amid a constant flow of razor sharp wit and superb writing. Even though the writing is stellar, alot of the quality dialogue comes from improv through the recurring cast members Guest works closely with. Most notably Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara.
All of these three films (and Spinal Tap) use a similar format. The world is explored through the story, and the characters are explored through interviews with the documentary crew - a style popularised for British audiences by Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's masterpiece of TV The Office.
In 2006 came For your Consideration, which Ricky Gervais found a part in after befriending Guest. The same writer/director, and some of the same cast again created what was always likely to be yet another home run, but, alas, it was not to be. For me the reason is simple - there were no interviews, and hence the mockumentary style was lost. All the others use the interviews to tie the scenes together so ingeniously.. but For Your Consideration sorely lacks that insight in to the characters, which usually helps make them so much more relatable and charming, not to mention hilarious.
This mechanism not only saves alot of time, plot baggage and complex scene writing, but invaluably gives us the internal thoughts of the characters, which are often then displayed, developed or dismantled in other scenes. The characters open up in front of the camera, and especially since the films all focus on preforming arts of some sort, we are shown the performers off duty when they are allowed to let their veil down. This is when the actor's performances are at their most subtle and genuine.
Why were there were no interviews in For Your Consideration, it leaves the film feeling incomplete.. a criminal ommission.
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