Great film. Lots of fun. While not as funny as Best in Show or as cute as Waiting for Guffman, it does come off as very appealing.

Let's scattershot our way through the cast of characters:

Bob Balaban as Jonathan Steinbloom. It's typical Balaban (although a bigger and beefier role). My favorite Balaban is the quietly sane band director Lloyd in Waiting for Guffman, but he has a lot of great moments here, especially when he objects to the "dangerous foliage."

Harry Shearer as Mark Shubb. Shearer never really gets a chance to roll in any scene (unless you count the silly ending gag, which was a bad way to end the film). I think Guest should have let him do the Spanish Civil War monologue.

Michael McKean as Jerry Palter. McKean is good in about anything, but Jerry's character is never defined.

Christopher Guest as Alan Barrows. Easily Guest's least inspired performance in his series (hard to top Corky from Guffman or Harlan Pepper from Best in Show), but it's capable. Comes alive during the singing sequences.

Eugene Levy as Mitch Cohen. I worried about Levy; I hoped he wouldn't do a 60's joke throughout the film. He sort of did, but the one scene in which he walks across the street, gets transfigured by the Samsung ad, and goes out to buy a rose was beautiful. Some scenes were poignant to the extreme. I still like Levy's sublety as Dr. Pearl in Guffman.

Catherine O'Hara as Mickey Crabbe. Definitely one of the best performances in the film (and my favorite O'Hara role in a Guest movie). Facial expressions do it all.

Jane Lynch as Laurie Bohner. Lynch is good as the cheery-faced person talking inane things. Not much to say here.

John Michael Higgins as Terry Bohner. Fun role, although I wish they would have played up the abused/abusive angle a bit more. Making Terry a nut too was a little odd.

Parker Posey as Sissy Knox. Posey, who was more than up for the challenge in Guffman and Best in Show, is criminally underused. I can only surmise that she had a busy schedule because she is wonderful in her few scenes.

Jim Piddock as Leonard Crabbe. Piddock was great as the co-announcer in Best in Show; here he quietly steals the show early as the train buff/rectile function expert. The way he obtusely corrects Mitch in that his town is named Crabbetown not Crabbeville is priceless.

Don Lake and Deborah Theaker as Elliott and Naomi Steinbloom. Lake has quick, straight roles in Guest's films (so does Theaker). Both of which get a little broader roles--Lake as the non folk buff, Theaker as the over-emotional one. Neither really have much to do.

Fred Willard as Mike LaFontaine. Willard had a relatively straight role in Guffman, was superb as the announcer in Best in Show, and I can't decide about this one. It's undeniably funny (and rightfully restricted to about three or four scenes), but it's not really a stretch. Nice to see Willard can still play a sleaze. This one reminds me of someone...

Ed Begley Jr. as Lars Olfen. Begley contributed a welcome cameo as the hotel clerk in Best in Show. Here, he's the Swedish folk buff working for public broadcasting. His best scene is probably when he explains his folk roots.

Michael Hitchcock as Laurence Turpin. Hitchcock has had wonderfully showy roles in all three--the councilman obsessed with drama in Guffman, the yuppie in Best in Show. As the Town Hall manager, his best scene is when he sings "Ave Maria" (although he got his best laugh at my theater when he pointed out what a ceiling is).

Larry Miller as Wally Fenton. Miller is another one criminally underused (although Guest has really only used him to his best in Best in Show as the guy in charge of talking jumpers down).

Jennifer Coolidge as Amber Cole. Coolidge cheerfully overacts in order to squeeze the most amount of humor out of her brief role.

*The music is great. Mitch and Mickey's song is actually rather sweet, the Folksmen's songs are silly but fun, and you MUST stay and listen for the song about The Good Book that the New Main Street Singers sing over the credits. It's actually rather touching when they all sing a Mighty Wind at the end.

*The film's major problem is that it is schizo. The New Main Street Singer scenes are all outrageous and surrealistic, while Mitch and Mickey are actually like real people (in a way). It's tough sometimes to appreciate this jarring switch between styles.

*All in all, great film. Probably my favorite of the Guests due to the music (although the songs in Guffman are still the tops). Would have been the best "five months later" ending if not for the inane last gag.

The greatest scene, for me, was the performance of the title song (although Mitch and Mickey's last song is touching). You get caught up in it all. While some have said that Guest didn't have the bite of Best in Show (true), I think that's a good thing for this sort of thing. Like Guffman, A Mighty Wind deals with characters that aren't cruel or mean-spirited. They're a little goofy, a little on the slow side, out-of-date. But they're nice people.

That's why Guest let Red, White, and Blaine be a success (sort of) and why he is properly respectful in the concert. When all the groups are up there singing "A Mighty Wind," I felt a little moved. Yeah, the Folksmen are goofy, yeah, Mitch and Mickey have lost it, yeah, the New Main Street Singers have one of the worst sounds ever...but they all love what they're doing. It reminded me of the "Nothing Ever Happens on Mars" song from Guffman. It's silly to the max, but it's touching.