Christopher Guest doesn't do funny. At least, he doesn't do it often. His directing filmography is sparse - he's only racked up nine projects in the past two decades.
But Guest's bread and butter (and his claim to fame) is the "mockumentary," a style that typically places an unadorned script in the hands of gifted improvisers to craft stories that, if done properly, are both frenetically absurd and disarmingly intimate. It is an offbeat and subversive genre that doesn't so much seek to capture the human condition as string it up for everyone to gawk at, and Guest (who first helped to popularize the style by co-writing and starring in 1984's "This Is Spinal Tap") is more than its poster child; he is its singular influence.
Guest used the mockumentary framework with his last offering, 2006's "For Your Consideration," but Guest's films have maintained an unmistakably Herzog-ian energy that is always animated with perfect tenderness and lunacy by his standby troupe of peerless performers - a group that includes the likes of Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy.
Usually starting out scattered before honing in on a culminating event at the end of the film, Guest's characters, which are developed with frequent collaborator Levy, are beautifully layered yet transparent as screen doors. We watch them grow, doubt themselves and desperately retreat again and again to their own glassy-eyed vanity before being crushed, exhausted and delusional under the weight of their own faith. Guest's stories are tragically unfair, detailing the heavy prices paid by those with strength enough to hope. And somehow, they're hilarious.
Guest has slowly found a wide audience of admirers and followers. British funnyman Ricky Gervais, who had a supporting role in "For Your Consideration," cites "This Is Spinal Tap" as his favorite film and a major influence in his writing. To be in one of Guest's films is considered an honor for comedic actors, even if it's just for a moment (Sandra Oh and John Krasinski managed to snag bit parts in "For Your Consideration" as well - the former hardly spoke a word).
But for all the demand he has accrued, Guest doesn't seem to want to play the funnyman he's expected to be. Overeager interviewers, fans of his work, seeking to draw out the secret to his signature deadpan style frequently discover a man who is overly wry, impatient and supercilious - a man who wishes to distance himself as far as possible from the characters that have made him a cult icon, and just be left alone. "I rarely joke unless I'm in front of a camera," he routinely explains. "It's not what I am in real life. It's what I do for a living."
Guest may not be as congenial as closeted choreographer Corky St. Clair or backwoods dog enthusiast Arlen Pepper (characters of his from "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show," respectively), but art isn't easy, and congeniality is trifling in the face of the big picture. And when Guest is at the helm, it's a beautiful picture indeed.
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