SXSW2006–Air Guitar Nation/Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon

AIR GUITAR NATION Once in a filmgoer’s lifetime comes a documentary that validates his existence. That shows him that he’s not alone. That actually tells him that he’s not completely insane.

Air Guitar Nation is that movie for me.

For the past few years I have been told that no one plays air guitar. It’s stupid. It’s lame. It only makes the “player” look like a complete fool. Well, I’m here to say that I am that fool!

But these guys are even more foolish. And they’re all the cooler for it.

Every year the Air Guitar World Championships are held in Finland. Why Finland? Why not America? After all, that’s where the guitar (and air guitar) was invented! What’s even stranger is that we never had someone enter until just a couple of years ago!

And that’s when the world changed. We had two entries that year. C Diddy and Bjorn Turoque.

Director Alexandra Lipsitz keeps the fun going throughout the movie and is careful not to make these guys into jokes. Yeah, they’re doing some pretty weird shit, but they’re never sad. This is just their way to blow off steam and become the rock gods they’ve always wanted to be if only for a few minutes. At the end of the day, they take off their Hello Kitty chest shields and go home, just like anybody else.

Of course, Bjorn is working on a memoir, so maybe he’s a bit more serious than anybody else. “Make air! Not war!”

I was really tired going into this movie. In fact, I was falling asleep standing in line. But it woke my ass up. And that takes some doing. Check it out.

Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon

Wow. What an awesome movie.

Take Scream. Turn it into a mockumentary and then go right back into horror and you’ve almost got Behind The Mask. But it’s a lot more awesome than that description could ever tell you.

Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesal, who is a bit too Jim Carrey, but that’s part of the fun) is a rising serial killer. And I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill Gacy or Zodiac killer. No, this guy wants to be the next Jason Voorhees or Freddie Krueger. He wants to keep coming back and coming back and coming back. And he’s got a mentor (Scott Wilson) to help him. He also happens to have a film crew following him around to catch every part of his rise. They’re there as he slowly lets his pray know that he exists.

Director Scott Glosserman knows exactly how to keep his audience on edge. I kind of knew where he was going, but it was so much fun getting there that I didn’t care. And the cameos from a couple of horror legends just made it more fun.

See this for the mockumentary section, but stay for the horror section at the end where the victims know exactly where the traps are, but they have no choice but to follow them. I can’t wait to buy this one.