capone666 American MovieThanks to crowd-sourcing your movies online, your film's financial investors are now faceless strangers without legal representation.But as this mockumentary confirms, in the late-90s', aspiring auteurs were indebted to their families.When Mark's (Mark Borchardt) feature film project is put on hold due to a lack of funding, he redirects his focus to an unfinished horror movie of his called Coven.With his senile uncle Ben backing the short-film and his best friend (Mike Schank) serving as sound-engineer, Mark and many of the townsfolk begin to make one of the worst movies ever made.Marred by his alcoholism, lack of organization and ongoing custody battle with his ex, Mark's cinematic debut is threatened at every angle.One of the first and funniest found-footage documentaries to follow around down-and-out losers, American Movie is inventive, inspiring and awkwardly uproarious.Nowadays, however, the hardest part of movie-making is choosing which bestseller to adapt.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

PWNYCNY This movie provides an excellent insight into the world of movie making, a world that requires no special training, just the desire to to do something creative. Movie making is one of the few areas left where formal credentials are not required. Case in point is the subject of this movie, a young man who starts out with nothing and years later creates a commercial product. It's really quite impressive. What I did not like about this documentary is that the young man and his associates are portrayed as being marginal and dysfunctional characters when in fact they are business people trying to put together a commercial product, and just because they don't dress or sound the part does not make them any less deserving of respect. Then again, maybe that's a strong point of the documentary. Whatever the case, this documentary should be a must see for anyone who has an urge to create but does not know where or even how to start. If this young man could do it, why not us?

MisterWhiplash Sometimes all you need is passion, or a need to keep working at something so that all of what you want the world to see is in the work. The so-called 'American Dream' is all about somebody trying to get out of the little world they're living in and make something of themselves, to be more than they are. In this case we have a filmmaker, very independent minded and determined through years of trial and tribulation, who wants to get his dream somehow. Which is not easy since the guy, Mark Borchardt, is an beer-guzzling factory/cemetery worker who has three kids with an ex-wife he barely sees, a mountain of debt, an executive producer Uncle who is half-senile and half never supportive (despite giving up the thousands for the film-making), and, obviously, gets very depressed. But it's a story, in spite of everything that happens, funny or tragic, is hopeful and inspiring about the future for Mark.And it's also about something else, how making a movie takes time, and money, sometimes both in equal measure. Borchardt's movie he's planning is a feature-length exploration of his life and times in Minnesota, Northwestern, but he's having trouble getting it off the ground: not ready to direct, not ready with the script, no locations or a solid cast. So instead he goes back to a short film he started years ago, a psychological horror called 'Coven' (or CO-ven as he points out), which is a mere 40 minute movie that takes him more than three years of production. As he's making this movie we get to know who Borchardt is- or at least what Chris Smith gets to know him as or reveals- and his family and friends, including his old and not-all-there Uncle Bill, his friend Mike who is an ex drug addict turned gambling addict, and his colleagues and girlfriend who all comment about Mark's ways as an artist and as a human being.A marker of a truly knowing and superb documentary is how close a filmmaker can get to the subject and make it into a story, make it into a story that is absorbing and true to something in the human condition, and can be just told well through the usual means of film-making itself. As Smith's film is about such a subject that he's making, one might think back to other documentaries on directors with a super (and I mean SUPER) passion for the story they're telling, almost to the point where they might not know when to let go (Herzog and Coppola docs come to mind like Burden of Dreams or Hearts of Darkness). But here we see a man who is a decent guy, though never truly professional. As one says, he's instinctual and primal, he knows his stuff, but whether he can finish his movie, and maybe finally get a catharsis from it (if only financially) remains to be seen.His struggle isn't just one of being an artist and after something he needs time and money to find, but about the ways that a person goes about finding it his own way, and that's a big key to the success of the movie. We care about this guy, even if some of the things he does or comes across are, frankly, quite funny in the way that Borchardt goes about filming Coven, or directs (or mis-directs) his actors, or says he'll ship out 3,000 copies of his short film without a clear idea who his audience is. And Smith really captures the other people around him with a precise but tender accuracy: we understand who they are at first, but then that understanding deepens based on the circumstances they live in (i.e. the method of alcoholism among Mark and his friends over the years, vodka being a big component), such as his Uncle's disillusioned feeling about Mark's lack of success, despite his backing of the project and what he does. Watch the scene where Mark directs his Uncle in the ADR recording of a certain few lines and one gets a key moment: Mark will stop at nothing to get what he's after, even if all hope might be lost.American Movie is a bittersweet experience. We want to root for this guy even if he is hapless and whose troubles might hit close to home for some, or may seem pathetic to others. He's not born into Hollywood royalty and didn't go to film school, but he'll keep on what he's doing just because, if nothing else, there is nothing else really except for the toilet at the cemetery full of feces. It's an entertaining parable, and a revealing portrait of truly independent film-making. Speaking of which, make sure to watch Borchardt's movie Coven on the DVD of American Movie - ultimately, when all is said and done, despite what the few clips in the documentary might suggest, he's a really good director. Sometimes, perhaps, humping the American dream in a small Northwest town is worth it.

ptitech Mark Borchardt is the subject of this riveting documentary. He's that kind of guy that you can't decide if it's genius or insanity. His focus is razor sharp, he knows exactly what he wants to do, exactly how he wants it done and you just know that NOTHING will stop this guy making his movie. The documentary follows Mark around as he postpones making his movie Northwest to make a movie he started 6 years earlier called Coven. His crew is made up of buddies. his financing is basically family, friends and scratch cards. Nothing is going to stop Mark doing what he wants. You grow to like him as the movie progresses and the dynamic between him and those around him is so soft and warm that you almost wish you had him as a friend. Coming from a background of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and many AA meetings Mark is the epitome of the human spirit. Obsessed with the American dream of wealth and good fortune he will succeed or he will die trying. Good luck to you Mark.