| American Movie (1999) |
| Directed by Chris Smith. Starring Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank, Bill Borchardt, and Monica Borchardt. |
| I'm still not too sure what to make of this.... Is it a warts and all snapshot of real life Americana, or a cleverly made This Is Spinal Tap style mockumentary. From what I hear, everything on the screen is real. Yet the characters are so larger than life, and the sequence of events so zany, that it could easily be fictitious. |
| American Movie chronicles the daily trials and tribulations of independant filmmaker Mark Borchardt. Mark is a filmmaker of questionable ability, and his family view him as something of a flake. His dream is to finish his epic Northwestern, which he started shooting years ago in a junkyard. Mark's brother thinks he'd be better off working in a factory. |
| After disasterous casting sessions, and budgetary problems, Mark decides to shoot a more modest project called Coven (which he pronounces Coe-Ven). Coven is a low budget Blair Witch Project style horror film. Mark borrows $3000 to shoot Coven from his senile rich uncle Bill. Old Bill provides much of the humour of this movie, along with Mark's best freind Mike. Mike seems to be permanently brain-damaged from too much acid, and has now sworn off all drugs and alcohol. His one vice is the lottery. He explains that 'at least with the lottery, sometimes you win. With drugs and alcohol you always lose'. That's about as profound as Mike gets throughout the film. |
| This film is both funny, and depressing at the same time. Mike says that he doesn't want to be some schmuck working in a factory. But with three kids to support, debts up to his ears, and the odds stacked against him, we know that realistically he can't hope for much more. But at the same time, he's not going down without a fight. The main message of American Movie is that we all need to at least try to follow our dreams no matter how slim the chance of success. Even if Mike's filmmaking career is a dismal failure, American Movie has given him the notoriety he craves. He states early on in the film that all he wanted wasto make his mark on the world, and I think he's succeeded. This film is inspiring viewing for anyone who's ever written a screenplay, or played around with a camcorder. |
| Entertainment : 3 out of 4 |
| Watchability : 3.5 out of 4 |
| Overall : 3.25 out of 4 |
| Reviewed by Blake |
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