Waiting for Guffman (1996)

Apart from a throwaway TV remake of Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, this was Guest's next film, and it proved to be the watershed moment of his directing career. Waiting for Guffman set the template for just about everything he's done since, with its ­documentary-style setup and largely improvised performances. It's a style that more or less picks up where 1984's This Is Spinal Tap - the film Guest cowrote with McKean, Harry Shearer, and director Rob Reiner - left off, but Guest has honed it considerably. The cameras trail a group of small-town actors as they attempt to put together a musical celebrating the 150th anniversary of Blaine, Missouri, under the direction of Guest's flamboyant failed theater director, Corky St. Clair. Waiting for Guffman's genius is that Guest doesn't mock the characters' misguided ambitions so much as he lets them do it for him, giving everyone just enough rope. The talented cast - Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Fred Willard, and Parker Posey, among others - rewards him by rarely playing for laughs, letting the scenario and the characters do all the work.

Best in Show (2000)

Guest followed Waiting for Guffman with his first real misstep, 1998's Almost Heroes, which starred Matthew Perry and Chris Farley as explorers out to beat Lewis and Clark or some such. You could forgive him, though, since (1) he didn't write it, (2) Perry was still very much a sitcom actor, and (3) Farley was partying himself to an early grave. Guest seemed to understand he had strayed too far from his strengths, so he retrenched and came back with Best in Show, which takes everything that was good about Waiting for Guffman and applies it to the world of dog shows. Guest was, to some extent, underestimated as a filmmaker after Waiting for Guffman, even though it was a success, because some felt he did nothing more than round up a skilled group of players, who then turned his idea into a movie. No one could accuse him of that with Best in Show, though it ­employs the same technique and many of the same actors. Coming much closer to a real documentary than to a series of staged sketches (especially the action sequences of the climactic dog show), the film proves that Guest is, perhaps, the sharpest comedic editor around, understanding exactly what makes each scene work in terms of serving the film as a whole.