Review of American Movie (1999) by Jean-Francois V — 23 Sep 2008

I've been in the kind of movies Mark Borchardt makes. Three of them, short horror films. It's hard work, everything that can go wrong does go wrong, people risk their lives for shots noone but they and a couple of friends will ever see. I've also written the kind of screenplays Mark Borchardt makes. Three of them too, with about as many readers each. Maybe that's why "American Movie" never made me laugh, only cringe.

Mark Borchardt is not the kind of person I would hang out with. He smokes, drinks, swears, watches too much spectator sports, and lives constantly on the edge of personal bankruptcy, but he has a good heart and probably knows more about making movies than I do, and with his doggedness and gift of the gab, he manages to get things done, even if it takes him six years to complete a 40 minute film.

Perhaps the saddest thing about "American Movie" is that while Borchardt puts about as much effort into his short as Peter Jackson did into the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, a team of guys are filming him and making the movie that will actually get released on DVD, receive awards, draw crowds, make money, get a page on Flixster and elicit favourable reviews by the likes of Roger Ebert. If Borchardt had only filmed himself rather than let Chris Smith do it, he would probably have been that much closer to his "American dream".