Documentary corner: American Movie

It’s not often you see a documentary split opinion in such a love-it-or-hate-it fashion. I suppose that is something that comes with ‘cult film’ territory, and personally, when I think of the label of ‘cult classic’, American Movie is the first film that comes to mind. The star here is Mark Borchardt – an amateur filmmaker who has spent his whole life trying to inspire his family and slacker friends to fund, star in, and help produce a short horror film ‘Coven’. He does this in order to garner interest and money, eventually allowing him to produce his magnum opus ‘Northwestern’.

Mark’s charm manifests itself in his unwavering enthusiasm in the face of ridiculous odds; What one comes to realise is that everybody but Mark – and his best friend/side-kick Mark Schank – knows that Coven is doomed. We see scene-after-scene of failed shoots, horrific acting based on a woeful script, topped off by laughable special effects. If you look up the infamously hilarious scene of Mark’s attempts to direct his bored and grumpy Uncle Bill (the unwilling main financier of the project) to say just one line “It’s alright, it’s ok! There’s something to live for! Jesus told me so!” you’ll get the idea.

But, of course, complexity is present beyond the can’t-look-away car crash humour. What is so uniquely brilliant about this film is how hilarious it can be whilst simultaneously maintaining a serious and quite depressing undertone.

This, I feel, warrants some explanation. The difficulty here is that describing this movie accurately is near-impossible due to it simply being that bizarrely dichotomous in its feel. Some examples may give a rough idea though. One line that stands out is when, following an endless string of laboured takes, Mark shouts to Uncle Bill “you have to believe in what you’re saying!” to which Bill bitterly replies “Well, I don’t; I don’t believe in nothing you’re doing.” The pessimism shown by Uncle Bill throughout really contrasts and cuts through the child-like enthusiasm of Mark, helping us to see past his fantasy world and understand the reality of his life. Both Mark and Mike grew up in a very working class area of Milwaukee and both experienced quite desolate upbringings; both face a number of demons. A burgeoning alcoholism is evident in the film, and Mark’s issues with both gambling and a deeply dysfunctional family are also explored later on. Mike, at several points, explains that the only thing for friends to do for fun in his city is slack off and drink can-after-can of shit beer.

I consider American Movie to be one of the best documentary films ever made, and would happily place it very high up on a list of my favourite movies. What it presents to the viewer is a uniquely unpolished, warts-and-all look into the lives of people attempting to do away with their label of “trailer park white trash,” achieve success in Hollywood, and live the American Dream.