Fluff

MASCOTS (C+) - Christopher Guest returns after a long layoff to his signature genre, the mockumentary, with many of his usual character actors but with a few key ringers missing. The result is an only fleetingly funny send-up of mascot competitions.

Guest co-wrote and starred in "This Is Spinal Tap," and he went on to direct a string of brilliant spoofs, including "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show," slipping only moderately with later efforts "A Mighty Wind" and "For Your Consideration." But the tap is running dry, and he's coasting on fumes these days.

I couldn't help thinking of the recent Paul Reubens comeback, "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday," in which the '80s icon fell flat by recycling his old shtick. Here, Guest's script is full of one-liners and gags that sound like they were rejected from his other films, as if he were going through old notebooks of wacky routines and stale scenarios. (One character was raised in a cult that worshiped the hokey TV show "Highway to Heaven.") Like Pee-Wee, this one flounders on Netflix's streaming service.

Many of Guest's regulars are around. Parker Posey, Jane Lynch and Ed Begley Jr. are especially strong here. (The funniest mascot here is referred to only fleetingly when Begley recalls his years as Danny the Donkey, believed to be the first and only anatomically correct mascot, rendered in censored photographs.) Fred Willard's familiar clueless oaf doesn't work here. Michael Hitchcock, John Michael Higgins, Don Lake, Bob Balaban and Jennifer Coolidge have been much funnier elsewhere. Harry Shearer steals the show from behind the scenes as the droll announcer for the competition. Guest himself revives the mincing Corky St. Clair from "Guffman," but he mostly lets the character's goofy outfits and embarrassing hairpiece do most of the comedic work.

But three key veterans are missing: Eugene Levy, who co-wrote previous films with Guest; Catherine O'Hara, Levy's better half; and Michael McKean. They leave a huge hole. A few newcomers do add a jolt of fresh blood: sitcom actor Susan Yeagley is hilarious as Posey's gum-chomping sister; Zach Woods (HBO's "Silicon Valley") and TV veteran Sarah Baker give it their all as a bickering, passive-aggressive couple. Chris O'Dowd, as usual, is more annoying than funny, although he gets the best costume -- a giant fist that entertains fans at minor-league hockey games.

The structure of the film is odd, too, as if Guest sort of just slapped things together. We get very little actual mascot action during the first two acts, and therefore the overall goofiness fails to take hold. But then, throwing off the narrative balance, the final third of the movie is devoted almost exclusively to the routines of the various mascots -- a plumber, a pencil with sharpener (essentially simulating sex onstage), and Posey's bizarre gothic armadillo mask. Some of the routines run in full, and a few are actually kind of moving in their own weird way. Cut to the requisite epilogue showing the characters one year later and roll credits to the 89-minute mark.

Guest's formula has become formulaic. This isn't a gut-buster. It's been 16 years since Harlan Pepper was naming nuts in "Best in Show" and 20 since he pranced around in "Guffman." He is one of the funniest men alive. But it's time for him to either find a new format or retire.

BONUS TRACK
"Macadamia nut":