American Movie -
Is Mark Borchardt a bootstrapping hidden talent who inspires and brings out the best in those in his inner circle? Is he a dreamer unwilling to accept that he's a never-was and is ultimately a master manipulator? That's for you to decide in
American Movie, a documentary I very much enjoyed that sort of plays out like a real-life
Ed Wood. While it succeeds at a lot of things, it's at its best when it exposes the harsh reality of getting a movie made, i.e. an independently financed one as a debt-addled adult with a family. From Mark's joy at being approved for a credit card to begging his mother to be an extra to being forced to take the kind of menial job he repeatedly rails against, it's not hard to see where his more practical and naysaying father and his brother Chris come from. The most interesting parts of Mark's struggle to finish
Coven, however, are in the scenes where he spends time with his Uncle Bill. Besides recalling the relationship in
Ed Wood between the director and Bela Lugosi, it captures that dichotomy I mentioned earlier about Mark better than anything else in the movie. After all, while he probably couldn't have finished his movie without Bill's money, Mark gives him company, a sense of purpose and shares his dream with him in the process. Other touches I appreciate are seeing clips of the finished product and how they call back to the making of scenes, thus making me appreciate the blood, sweat, tears and good luck that went into them. There's also Mark's clearly inspired reactions to the Oscars and the Packers winning the Super Bowl - a moment this Packer fan was happy to relive - for how they reminded me that such events push the notion of the American dream and that anyone can make theirs happen. As this movie demonstrates, however, doing so is not the romantic and individualistic affair they lead us to believe. It requires a lot of good luck, generous relatives like Bill, devoted friends like Mike and Ken and is a generally messy and exhausting affair.
By the way, this reminds me a lot of
Anvil: The Story of Anvil, which is one of my favorite movies.