Welcome to The Anti-Blair Witch Project, also known as American Movie, a film by two recent Milwaukee film school graduates, (director) Chris Smith and (co-producer) Sarah Price. This movie's characters are SO banal and homely that they go beyond the definition of 'ordinary' in a way you'd think only fiction could achieve. Yet American Movie is fact. The real deal. It is a documentary (advertised as a comedy) which follows around an independent filmmaker named Mark Borchardt. A high school drop-out with a crazed passion for movies, Mark has a dream to make his very own, in the same vein as Phantasm or Dawn of the Dead (which he believes are the true masterpieces of filmmaking).
Condensing two years of Borchardt's life into one hour and forty-five minutes, Smith and Price show us Mark's often outrageous, unbelievable success story on the making of a no-budget 16mm horror film. It all began in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, when a young Mark (who was full of energy, but short on brains) bought an old Super-8 film camera. All his films ended up in soft-focus. Nobody thought he would amount to much. Today, family members still admit freely that Mark is really "best suited to work in a factory." But somehow, the now 30-year-old Borchardt coerced his family and friends to help him, under the most sad, pathetic and dire of circumstances, to make his great American epic, Northwestern. What stopped him was the lack of funds and resources. So instead, he decides to finish Coven, or "Coh-vin" as said by Mark, because the proper pronunciation sounds too much like "oven" which just sounds lame. This is a horror film that he's been working on for several years. The project had continuously been delayed because of things like weather, his producer going to jail on drug charges, no money and Mark's own battle with alcoholism. Regardless, he plans to complete "Coh-vin" and sell it at the price of $14.95. If he can sell 3,000 units, this will cover the costs to finance his baby, Northwestern. And that, in his mind, will be his ticket to fame and fortune.
First off, I'd like to give a warning: if you're the type who was never frightened by the fake witch, then that strong grasp on reality which you possess might not let you be able to laugh at Borchardt at all. This guy is a very real, willful, and sometimes unsettling human being. Is this is "One of the most hilarious documentaries ever made!" as I've read in some reviews? In my best Borchardt impression, "There isn't nothin' hilarious about it, man. Fuck that, man!" No, this movie contains some of the most downright depressing documentary footage I've ever seen! In fact, this film personally hits so close to home for me that it probably took all the fun out of it. Thank GOD there's a happy ending, because otherwise I just might have thrown myself in front of a bus on the way out of the theater.
Smith is brutally honest in showing the life that Mark leads. While the laboured shoot of Coven will certainly make you laugh (the guy has to beg his own mother to dress up in a black, cult-like robe because not enough extras showed up), it is equally painful to watch. I do believe that Smith meant for it to be this way, yet the audience I saw this film with seemed to believe that every moment was funny and frivolous -- even the things that only made me cringe or want to cry. Like seeing Mark drink himself into such a stupor on a Super Bowl Sunday that all he can speak is gibberish. Tee hee hee! Like hearing his giggling, spaced-out friend Mike recount stories about his acid flashbacks! Ooooh, what a riot! What about the story when he OD'ed and almost died in the hospital? Or the reason why Mike loves to buy lottery tickets (one of the most poignant moments of the film)? I don't know about everyone else, but I just have a hard time laughing at the expense of other people.
So, what the hell do I have in common with a man whose own brother "figured he'd become a stalker or a serial killer" one day? Well, as an amateur filmmaker, I share his dogged ambition to make movies. His (lack of) talent aside, Mark devotion is so great that he inevitably ends up taking on every task because no one else will do it. From begging people for money; having to operate the camera himself; splicing the film with his own bare hands and falling asleep on the Steenbeck flatbed editor from exhaustion. Makes me wonder if I look that insane, desperate and tragic? Will I end up like him in ten years time?
American Movie tells me that even if I do, this is not a bad thing. Sometimes there are professions to which you are not particularly well-suited for. But irrespective of repeated failures, if you take the journey and follow your dreams, like Borchardt, you just might be able to make something out of it. Because after two years of suffering, Mark does triumph by the end. And with American Movie out to tell his story, Borchardt finally gets his 15 minutes of fame. Here's hoping he takes advantage of it while he has it.
DROOL FACTOR: If you intended to see this film for sumptuous men with stacked bods, don't. Mark Borchardt ain't exactly Ralph Fiennes if you know what I'm sayin'. Besides, the guy is 30 years old, still lives with his parents, the IRS is after him and he can't even pay his phone bill let alone pay child support for his three children. Who wants that kind of baggage, man?
GROSS-OUT FACTOR: Mostly just fake blood as make-up, fake knife props. There is one rather icky excerpt from a Super-8 film that Borchardt made as a teenager. Entitled I Blow Up, he tries to simulate what it would look like if a human spontaneously combusted.
STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Mrs. Borchardt must have a mind of steel and a heart of gold to be able to be so patient with her son, who is constantly in debt, a borderline alcoholic and an occasional shit-rouser in her home. Remember though, this woman is a real person, not a character. She's simply a mother who loves her son.
-- Julie Ng
American Movie is currently in theaters. To purchase a copy of Mark Borchardt's Coven, visit http://www.americanmovie.com/
.
We welcome your comments on The 11th Hour and this review. Please send letters to: letters@the11thhour.com
