Waiting for Guffman 1996

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Patricia S. McCormick, New York Times: Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This 1997 comedy 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. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A sly and gleeful comedy showcase that pokes clever fun at the American musical, amateur theatricals and anything else that's not nailed down. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A madcap gem. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A very funny, very unusual ensemble comedy that falls somewhere between slapdash and brilliant, an improvised comedy with more hits than misses. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There is such a thing as comic momentum, and Guest has a good sense of what that means. Comic momentum doesn't refer to nonstop jokes, but to an atmosphere that is always ripe for humor. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Attention is paid not simply to funny characters and punch lines, but to small nudges at human nature. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The originality and audacity of the film, written by Guest and Levy, is what holds us. They never lose the conceit that the documentary filmmakers, and not themselves, are the ones who made this movie. Read more

Time Out: The comedy has the slow burn of a richly nuanced and non-judgmental character study. Read more

Daniel M. Kimmel, Variety: Where This Is Spinal Tap took rock music and the media as its focus - fat, juicy targets just asking to be lampooned - Guest's target here is small-town provincials. Read more