Your eyes are shut, your head bobs in time to the music, your fingers play every note on an invisible instrument and you really hope nobody looks in the living-room window -- that's air guitar.

Few things sound sillier than a feature film on the subject, but Air Guitar Nation is a happy surprise. Exhilarating and oddly endearing, this examination of the Air Guitar world championship -- no, seriously -- is time well wasted at the movies. As one enthusiast notes, "to err is human; to air guitar, divine." Yeesh.

According to Air Guitar Nation, there has been an annual world championship in Oulu, Finland, since the early '90s and for several years the United States was not represented.

American air guitar specialists decided to fix that in 2003 with an East Coast competition to be held above a strip club in New York. It was to be a small event, but after Howard Stern talked about the air guitar championship on his radio show, it all went gonzo. Hundreds were turned away. Footage from the event shows arch-rivals C-Diddy (real name: David Jung, an actor and comic) and Bjorn Turoque (real name: Dan Crane, a writer/musician) battle for top spot, with the winner going on to the West Coast competition.

From there, the U.S. champ goes to Finland to represent America in the world competition. It's every bit as competitive, humorous and ridiculous as it sounds, but the people who take part in the competitions are what keep you watching. These men and women from various walks of life adopt a stage persona and jump into their 60 seconds of mock celebrity.

Air guitar has elements of politics (Make Air, Not War) and patriotism, something to say about fame, and a lot to say about being the very best in the world at something. According to the documentary, "airness" -- the ineffable but elusive quality sought by all air guitar players -- is related to world peace. People in Finland are devoted to the concept that you can't hold an air guitar and a gun in your hands at the same time. Irresistible.

Air Guitar Nation won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival.

(This film is rated 14-A)
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