2003 - A MIGHTY WIND, clever spoof of early 60's folk music.

The third film in sort of an unofficial trilogy by Christopher Guest that started with Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show. I'm not counting This Is Spinal Tap since that was directed by Rob Reiner not Christopher  Guest.

A Mighty Wind is a gentle satire of folk music groups which were popular in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  The groups are now kind of past their prime to put it mildly.  A PBS like network stages a concert for this bunch of folk musician oldsters probably to be shown during one of those endless pledge drives they were always hammering the TV audience with.

Three groups are featured, "The Folksmen" playing some ridiculous song called "Old Joe's Place" which is about a greasy spoon diner somewhere in middle America.  "The New Main Street Singers" are a group of very white musicians fronted by a husband and wife who used to be a porno star. They also happen to be members of a witches coven.  

Then there is a folk duo called "Mitch and Micky" who were apparently involved in a relationship until they acrimoniously split up. Mitch is now clearly suffering from emotional problems while Mickey has moved on and married a catheter salesman for a medical distribution company.  Their plot line is actually kind of touching.

Christopher Guest by this point had developed a stock company of performers.  Michael McKeon, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard, John Michael Higgins and as "Mitch and Micky,"  Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy.  Many of the performers wrote their own songs for this film.

A Mighty Wind doesn't have they real sharp satirical bite of Waiting for Guffman or Best In Show, but it's very entertaining in it's own way.  Christopher Guest seems to have great affection for this collection of over the hill musicians.

The film was written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. the running time is 92 minutes.