American Movie
This is a movie I should have watched years ago. That I did not prioritize it probably had more to do with it just not being something that hit my active radar in 1999 rather than it just not being something I wanted to watch. I should have watched Chris Smith’s “American Movie” prior to starting filming on my short film, “Unwinnable Hand,” in 2006, but I don’t know if I quite realized what it was about at the time. Now that I do, I lament that it took so long to view it.
There are two separate stories being told in “American Movie,” and it’s the reason Smith’s film is so great and entertaining. The obvious one is as he follows Mark Borchardt, a blue-collar Wisconsin-ite whom works menial jobs, has tremendous debt, and lives with his parents, but whom dreams of being a filmmaker. We see clips of his 8mm horror films he made growing up, and they display a rough edge that reminds us of two of the films most influential on him, “Night of the Living Dead” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” His big dream is to tell a personal story of his life and struggles called “Northwestern,” but he first hopes a horror short, “Coven,” he wants to make will allow him the financial resources to make “Northwestern.” If the film was just about this, it would be enough for a wildly entertaining movie, but Smith also sets his sights on making a film about life below the poverty line. I couldn’t help but think of “Roger & Me” as I watched Borchardt and his friends and family try to bring “Coven” to life, although Michael Moore certainly would have focused more on the lives, and outside forces that led to how their lives have gone, more than the filmmaking business of it. Smith does a great balancing act between highlighting the poverty Mark and his family live in with a story of putting on a show that feels like “Waiting for Guffman” or “Ed Wood” in its absurdity, starting with its main character. Borchardt is a bit of a deadbeat in a lot of ways- he’s behind on bills, has insurmountable debt, barely works, and doesn’t pay his child support, but dammit if his passion, and knowledge, for making films isn’t endearing as Hell.
Chris Smith has become one of the best documentary filmmakers around over the past couple of years- he did the “Jim & Andy” doc in 2017, as well as Netflix’s “Fyre” documentary earlier this year- but “American Movie” will likely be the film he’s forever remembered for, and for good reason. He looks at his subjects in this film without judgement, allowing us to make our own decisions about them. We cannot help but get sucked in to their worlds, and the story of how these ordinary people get sucked in to making Mark’s dreams come true, which they kind of don’t, but also kind of do when he has his big premiere at the end. It’s a familiar “film about filmmaking” trope, but this one actually happens, making us actually feel something more than the usual emotions for characters in a scripted narrative- here, an actual person, and his friends and family, gets to see the fruits of their labors pay off on a big screen; we are witnessing what might be the most meaningful moment of their lives unfold. That’s kind of inspiring, and Smith doesn’t have to do much to pull it off but just follow the narrative, and let his subjects do the rest. That they succeed makes us feel like we got to see something special happen.
