I loved American Movie for many reasons. The obvious is it's
rubbernecking at a train wreck attraction. Watching the film crew &
cast go about trying to make great art is very funny. But on a deeper
level as a sociologist I was in awe of such a perfect study in white
trash day to day activities with a little silve lining of Hollywood
aspirations around it. Just the making of the movie is funny but not
interesting enough to hold a full length documentary, however, when
you add the lifestyles and personal disasters of the subjects it
becomes amazing. Kudos to the filmmaker and editor of this one. It
could have turned into a terrible mess but smooth editing of the
footage into a story makes it a classic.
Coven was good (and Mike pronounces it co--vin, he says "Coven, it
sounds like 'oven' that's stupid. It's Co-Vin." or something like
that. Mark did show talent, but the thing is that a lot of people have
somethinig they could probably become famous for if they could just
overcome themselves, and this film illustrates this in an entertaining
way without becoming too depressing. Who has not known or been Mark or
Mike at one time?
If you go to the New Bev to see it there is a whole fan base for Mike
Schank, the stoned musician friend who lives in the basement.
c.
--- In OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com, Joy McCann
<jmmccann_at_s...> wrote:
> I'm wondering how many of you have seen American Movie:
>
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/
>
> http://www.americanmovie.com/
>
>
> It's interesting to me that I've seen this thing three times, and my
> reactions are always different--both to the documentary and to the
> movie-within-a-movie that's part of the VD now: the short horror film
> Coven (not pronounced the normal way, but as if the word "cove" was
> part of the name).
>
> I'd be interested in everyone's take on both (in particular: JJT, KG,
> Carlye and DC, of course).
>
> --J
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on 2005-05-11 14:10:04