Pun Salad

Christopher Guest has previously taken on folk singers, dog shows, community theater, and aging British rock stars, all to major critical acclaim. His comedy hinges on his characters' deadpan overestimation of their own talent, intelligence, importance, and/or sanity. In this movie, the target is the movie industry, and—I think this is no coincidence—the critics were at best lukewarm.

Well, pilgrim, I'm here to tell ya: For Your Consideration is every bit as good, if not better than, Guest's previous movies. The plot follows the travails of the cast and crew of Home for Purim, a dreadful tear-jerker which inexplicably picks up "Oscar buzz." And things proceed from there.

Speaking of the Oscars: if I ran 'em, I'd give one to Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, John Michael Higgins, Jennifer Coolidge, Parker Posey, Rachael Harris, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, the immortal Larry Miller, and even maybe Ed Begley, Jr. OK, that's probably technically too many, but they're all great.

And Catherine O'Hara is amazingly good here; her performance skates a neat thin line between comedy and tragedy.