THE WEDDING CRASHERS (2005) (A) - When you laugh so hard you nearly fall off the couch -- and you're alone when it happens -- you're watching comedy gold. So it was and continues to be with the pairing of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as they practice the art of crashing weddings and living their frivolous but dress-formal lives.
Vaughn is at the top of his game here, with his rapid-fire banter and his uncanny balloon-animal skills. Wilson bounces off of him with elastic improv skills. His hangdog emotional bully complements Vaughn's glib conman. The hero's journey here involves the challenge of not breaking the quite elaborate rules of the game, most notably, don't ever fall in love with a bridesmaid or a guest. Of course, that is exactly what befalls our shallow pals, and they are gifted not only with a fine supporting cast but with a sizzling script by journeymen writers Steve Faber and Bob Fisher.
Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher are dynamic as the love interests, and their family is populated by the likes of Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour (as the women's blue-blood parents) and Bradley Cooper as McAdams' rich asshole fiance. There's also the requisite socially inappropriate grandmother and weird brother (see also, "Annie Hall," circling back to Walken). Plus there's an assist from an uncredited comic cameo as the godfather of wedding crashers (who has since moved on to crashing funerals). Director David Dobkin gets out the way and lets Vaughn and Wilson lead the charge.
The gags fly nonstop. My favorite moment -- representative of the moral ambiguity that cradles the entire film -- comes when Wilson has a quiet moment with Seymour, who is trying to cougar her daughter's pursuer. She asks Wilson to inspect and prod her refurbished breasts, and rather than decline or dive in, Wilson tells her: "This is borderline inappropriate." That is precise writing and character work.
We can overanalyze this one, but it's best to just to buckle up, enjoy the rollercoaster ride and try not to fall off the sofa.
BEST IN SHOW (2000) (A) - This is the height of the mockumentary movement, led by Christopher Guest, who starred in "This Is Spinal Tap" in the '80s and then took over the genre as director in the '90s, leading to this spoof of dog shows boasting a comedy all-star cast. Revisiting it 21 years later, the jokes still land, and the assemblage of actors is like a dream come true.
The improv all-stars are a who's who of snark: Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, as the Flecks, he with two left feet and she with a prodigious sexual history; Parker Posey and Michael Hamilton as OCD dog parents (who met at Starbucks -- competing Starbucks locations across the street from each other); Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins as a fussy, sarcastic couple; Jane Lynch as an alpha female, with an eye for Jennifer Coolidge's delightful ditz married to a codger; cameos from Bob Balaban, Larry Miller and Ed Begley Jr.; and the anchor, Fred Willard as the id-driven TV commentator. Then, out in left field, is Guest himself as homespun Harlan Pepper, famously serenading his homely bloodhound by naming nuts. The characters, of course, tend to resemble their animals, either physically or emotionally.
Guest juggles these various story lines until they all come together for the big competition, the annual dog show. Guest and Levy pack the script with inspired ideas and hilarious one-liners, assisted by some free-form work by the unparalleled cast. There are too many memorable one-liners to begin going down the rabbit hole, and they need the absurd context that Guest provides. It's a grand howl.
BONUS TRACK
"She was very popular back then."
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