Wesley's American Movie Review

I thought about putting this down as a "Retro Review" but, since the movie was released in 1999, I figured that wasn't long enough ago to list it as "retro." Still, it's not that recent but I figured that most people wouldn't be that familiar with the film so I decided to go ahead with the review. 

I just recently re-renewed my Netflix account and this was the first movie that I rented. I originally first heard about it on a list the Angry Video Game Nerd did on his favorite films. The concept behind it sounded too good to pass up so I decided to give it a shot. The documentary follows Mark Borchardt as he tries his best to make an independent film called Northwestern. However, after a while, he gives up on that project, deciding that it's too big, and he goes back to making a short horror film he had started years ago entitled Coven. It takes him three years to complete Coven and director Chris Smith is there every second to capture the horrible process of making an independent feature on film with no money and seemingly no idea of what you are doing. Oh yeah, it's also pretty hilarious. If that synopsis doesn't work for you, please watch the pretty awesome trailer for the movie below:

Watching this movie made me feel really good about myself. Being an independent filmmaker myself, it made me thankful that I'm shooting completely digitally and not on film. Shooting on film is a very laborious and difficult process, not only in the process of filming but in editing as well. Watching the editing section of this film definitely spelled that out for me. The film also made me thankful that I appear to be a lot saner and level-headed than our filmmaking hero in this documentary Mark Borchardt. 

Mark Borchardt is one of the most interesting people I've seen studied in film. At times, he just seems like a nice, passionate and appreciative guy that has a dream that he just wants to obtain. At other times, he seems slightly disturbed, misguided, slow, and pretty much insane. I can say one thing: he definitely has charisma and knows how to pitch his films to other people. He also has a determination to finish a film, no matter how bad it looks or ends up being, that I haven't seen many people show. 

No matter how you view Mark, his character and the film he is trying to make end up creating some pretty classic and hilarious moments in Chris Smith's documentary. The scene where he was trying to put another actor's head through a cabinet (which they tried to rig as break-away) was simply hysterical. I also enjoyed seeing the part where he gets his mother to dress up as one of the cult members that attack him in the woods while it's snowing. Talk about the least-menacing attackers you will ever see. 

Mark and the film making process that he goes through are not the only source of humor in this documentary. Mark lives in a world of a lot of very colorful characters, including his parents, the almost senile and cynical Uncle Bill, and the amazing Mike Shank. I honestly don't think you could ever write a character as colorful or strange as Mike Shank. Mike is Mark's soft spoken best friend who devotes himself to guitar playing and the lottery after years of drug and alcohol abuse. My favorite moment of his was the simple and honest aside he has with the cameraman on Thanksgiving where he excitedly whispers that he won fifty dollars in the lottery but is afraid to tell Mark or anyone else because he says they will want to borrow it from him. 

Aside from all the great lines that Mark delivers and the hilarious situations that pop up during the making of the film, there are a lot of dramatic and emotional moments during the film. Some of the more heart warming scenes occur between Mark and his Uncle Bill. While Bill remains pessimistic about not only life but Mark's future in filmmaking, Mark does his best to not only take care of Bill but to include him in the film and cheer him up. It's a really strange relationship that occurs between the two but, as the film goes on, you start to see the genuine love that the two have for each other. There are also a lot of moments in the film where Mark is down and out, whether its from running out of money, working a crappy job at the cemetery, or his ex threatening to leave with his children. One of the more disturbing moments of the film occurs when Mark gets drunk watching the Super Bowl and breaks down, giving a foul, curse-filled rant on how he's never going to be an average factory worker (one of his worst fears). 

Overall, if you've ever been interested in seeing how a film is made independently or seeing insight into one filmmaker's mind, I'd recommend you check this movie out. Although I've never been through a lot of the things that Mark goes through in this documentary in my own independent filmmaking career, there were a lot of moments where I could really identify with what the guy was going through and it was really frustrating to watch. Still, despite all the moments of frustration and despair, there are a lot of really humorous things that happen. Having watched the finished cut of Coven as a feature on the DVD, I can honestly say that Mark didn't do as bad as a job as it looked like he was doing. The influence of he and Mike Shank's A.A. days were obvious in the final product, making it slightly more than just the cheap, bloody horror movie that it looked like it was going to be. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still pretty bad, but not as bad as it looked. Still, despite Coven not being the best film in the world, Mark's journey to get the film done is a pretty admirable one. After all, you do get to see him try to put a guy's head through a wooden cabinet door that's just not going to break away. And what's better than that?

7/10