The British mockumentary Confetti is not, despite its best intentions, a Christopher Guest movie. While entertaining and at times quite funny, Confetti has the unintended consequence of showing — by comparison — just how talented Guest (Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman, A Mighty Wind, This is Spinal Tap [script], and recently For Your Consideration) and his loyal cast members are. While it is often said that successful 
comedy is an under-appreciated art, this film proves the adage to be all the more true for the improvisational satirical send-up.
The modern mockumentary owes a great debt to the dry and absurd comic style abundantly found in British television over the last several decades (well before The Office), and yet this venture, while worthy, is clearly wanting. Perhaps the reason Confetti doesn’t fully succeed is that it looses focus of its satirical main target: the wedding industry. The story involves a “dream wedding” competition hosted by fictional British bridal magazine Confetti, in which three couples, chosen as finalists, compete to stage the most unique version of the nuptial ceremony, the competing themes being: an homage to the Hollywood musical, a naturist (a.k.a. nudist) celebration, and a tennis-themed ceremony. Each concept is brought to fruition by a couple of, you guessed it, gay wedding planners. (While their characters might be unimaginatively conceived, they are the comic saviors of the film.)
The relationship between the obsession with the “perfect wedding” and the industries which exploit (or cater to, if you prefer) that obsession sounds like a rich source of satire, and yet Confetti seems to lack the ruthlessness to really skewer its subjects — both institutional and human. While I can’t imagine anyone looking at a dog show the same way again after watching Best In Show, Confetti never takes off the kid gloves. The closest Confetti comes to bold satire is when the magazine’s publisher confesses that its loyal readership is made up of sad women who will never find happiness.
Confetti doesn’t realize its potential because the film’s credits list is missing an essential part of the creative crew: a writer. The sole writing credit for the film, “Conceived by,” goes to director Debbie Isitt. Despite the film’s improvisational style, it clearly wanted for the process that would have gone into the creation of some form of screenplay. I suspect that better writing would have turned what is a funny and mildly compelling film into something much greater.
However, I can’t close out my thoughts on the film without mentioning how struck I
was by the stylish and captivating design of the actual magazine covers hanging on the wall of the magazine’s publishing office. Seeing them made me wish there actually were a magazine called Confetti, and that I could read a magazine with such impressive covers. Well, my inner bride is in luck, because those covers belong to the real Confetti magazine, published by our very dear friend Karen (whose readership is comprised of entirely well-adjusted Irish brides-to-be).
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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