Whoopee! (1930)

Just unfunny enough to be believed
With a brilliant comic premise that sounds like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, this film fails to deliver laughs at any juncture. It passes up so many opportunities to deliver the goods.

In the world of the Mocumentry, Christopher Guest always delivers with a genuine affection for his characters, besides the humor. That is missing here. What we get is a sniveling, unfunny little weasel, who is painful to watch, unlike Larry David or his Seinfeld ego, George Costanza. There is no character development here at all. The script meanders and just leaves one with the purposelessness of this production.

To see a truly funny mocumentary, rent any of the Guest films, Guffman, Best in Show or Mighty Wind, for a funny and amusing gay oriented film, try Mambo Itialino. I have had a hope that gay themed films would have come farther by now than this tripe.

The Documentary as an Entertainment Form!
SHOWBOY is a fascinating little film that challenges you to decide the polarity between fact and fiction. Though seemingly a Documentary (listed on the cover of the DVD as a Mockumentary) this is a work written by Screenwriter Christian Taylor and Lindy Heymann about the transition of a young man from a writer to a chorus line showboy in Las Vegas. 'Apparently' Christian was a writer for the popular HBO series SIX FEET UNDER, but was fired and retreated to Las Vegas to lick his wounds and apparently do research for a new screenplay on Vegas performers. Lindy Hermann is a documentarian who has been shooting a film about Taylor's involvement with Six Feet Under, discovers he has been fired, and follows him to Las Vegas where she continues to shoot the life of Taylor. Taylor becomes enamored with Las Vegas, wants to get the feel of 'tryouts' and the life and training of the showboys, only to discover that in his attempt to escape his disappointment with his loss of employment, he has found a new obsession with trying to be a dancer! His preparations and auditions are caught on film and one in particular, with a very fine and smoldering dancer Adrian Armas, shows Christian Taylor's 'passions' as a gay man encountering the dream of show biz with all the accoutrements! During the course of the film we meet a roommate (Erich Miller, an actual showboy now retired), Whoopi Goldberg, and Siegfried and Roy - all representing aspects of Las Vegas showtime. While it is difficult to find the line where we are being voyeurs or being duped, this film is never less than entertaining. And as with the best of documentaries (if indeed that is what it is) we are willingly swept along with the process. Highly recommended.

The Documentary as an Entertainment Form!
SHOWBOY is a fascinating little film that challenges you to decide the polarity between fact and fiction. Though seemingly a Documentary (listed on the cover of the DVD as a Mockumentary) this is a work written by Screenwriter Christian Taylor and Lindy Heymann about the transition of a young man from a writer to a chorus line showboy in Las Vegas. 'Apparently' Christian was a writer for the popular HBO series SIX FEET UNDER, but was fired and retreated to Las Vegas to lick his wounds and apparently do research for a new screenplay on Vegas performers. Lindy Hermann is a documentarian who has been shooting a film about Taylor's involvement with Six Feet Under, discovers he has been fired, and follows him to Las Vegas where she continues to shoot the life of Taylor. Taylor becomes enamored with Las Vegas, wants to get the feel of 'tryouts' and the life and training of the showboys, only to discover that in his attempt to escape his disappointment with his loss of employment, he has found a new obsession with trying to be a dancer! His preparations and auditions are caught on film and one in particular, with a very fine and smoldering dancer Adrian Armas, shows Christian Taylor's 'passions' as a gay man encountering the dream of show biz with all the accoutrements! During the course of the film we meet a roommate (Erich Miller, an actual showboy now retired), Whoopi Goldberg, and Siegfried and Roy - all representing aspects of Las Vegas showtime. While it is difficult to find the line where we are being voyeurs or being duped, this film is never less than entertaining. And as with the best of documentaries (if indeed that is what it is) we are willingly swept along with the process. Highly recommended.