American Movie

Ok, so I actually paid $7 (WHAT? SEVEN DOLLARS?!?! AT THE DOBIE?!?!) to see a documentary. Pretty outrageous, huh? At least it was a good one.

This little flick is about Mark Borchardt, a Wisconsin filmmaker who will stop at nothing to get his film made. His dedication is pretty amazing. His friends and family help him out, but most of them don’t seem too hyped on his chances. His Uncle Bill gave him $3,000 to help him make his short, Coven. But he started it three years ago. His friend Mike has been helping him all along, but Mike’s about as smart as a bag of clay because of all of the drugs he did in the past.

He’s just about finished with Coven, but that’s not his dream. His dream is a feature called Northwestern. While all of his previous shorts have been weirdo horror flicks, Northwestern is a personal odyssey about him and his friends.

This movie is really funny in the way that Ed Wood was really funny. We’re watching a guy who thinks he has every bit of talent of every director in Hollywood. He doesn’t really, but the will is there. He really wants to (no, he needs to) make this movie. He needs to sell 3,000 copies of Coven so that he can make his dream project. If that fails then he fails.

But he’s also got plenty of problems at home. That’s what makes the movie as sad as it is funny. First off, he’s white trash. Poor as dirt. Not very educated. Can’t seem to stop drinking. Second, he’s got three kids by a woman he doesn’t really love. They never got married and she wants the kids all to herself even though she’s in the same situation he is. (They both have semi-live-in significant others.) The only difference is that he takes his kids to see movies like Apocalypse Now. What’s wrong with that? Kids need the classics.

I felt a real sympathy for Mark even though he wasn’t really the greatest guy in the world. In fact, at times he’s kind of a jerk. But I saw a lot of myself in him. (Except, of course, I’m much better looking.–And, hopefully, a lot smarter. He’s got a good name, though.) I would love to do what Mark did. I just don’t have the guts. Maybe some day.

If you’ve seen Hands On A Hardbody (and most people at least here in Austin have since it’s been running at the Dobie for about a year and made over half of it’s money there) then you’ve seen the kinds of people that populate American Movie. Upper-lower class with a dream. That dream may not make a lot of sense to a lot of people, but it connects with some of us. And we can see the desperation that Mark goes through. I hope his movie makes it. It’ll give me a lot of hope for my dreams. I know I’ll be at the Dobie when Coven plays in a week or two.