For Your Consideration

Sadly, the arse is out of her on this fourth collaboration between Guest and his go-to cast of improvateers. Following the comedy gold formula of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, the premise in For Your Consideration is a schlocky period movie called Home for Purim that finds itself, impossibly, in Oscar contention. Unfortunately, the hilarious consequences barely materialise; it’s just way too soft a target and the cast don’t do anything new with essentially the same characters they played in the last three movies. There are definitely laughs, but they come from the set-up more than the pay-off; you can’t help but laugh at the sight of Fred Willard with a faux-hawk but the dense, bombastic television host he plays is the same dense, bombastic dog show host he played two movies ago. Meanwhile, Jennifer Coolidge plays it ditzy, Eugene Levy plays it smarmy, Parker Posey plays it uptight, Catherine O’Hara plays it vague, Ed Begley plays it gay, Ricky Gervais plays it Ricky Gervais and voila, you get the picture. It’s still worth seeing, but with such comedy brilliance running around the set, you can’t help but have hoped for more.