Review of Best Worst Movie (2009) by Sam B — 29 Dec 2011

Best Worst Movie may not be the best documentary I've ever seen, but it is without a doubt one of the most fascinating. It's all about the creation and legacy of the movie "Troll 2" which is currently seen by many as the worst movie ever made (and as someone who has seen Troll 2, that is definitely fair criticism). Through the course of the movie we see what has become of the cast, learn stories of the incredibly strange circumstances surrounding the movie's production, one of the most odd being the director, an Italian man who until this day believes he made a good movie, and doesn't understand why everybody laughs at it.

Like most great documentaries, Best Worst Movie eventually transcends its original premise - an examination of one of the stars (George Hardy) and his transformation from kind-hearted small-town dentist into cult film star. What the movie ends up being is not the kind of heartwarming success story it begins as. Instead, the documentary goes much deeper, gets far stranger, and becomes much more emotionally confusing. Believe it or not, the documentary based on the hilariously bad 1990 film is an oddly touching, harrowingly depressing look at unfulfilled dreams, misunderstood people, and miscommunication. More importantly, the film poses the tough question of what constitutes a failure. Is the worst movie ever made really a failure, especially if it has a following? Do those who acted in said terrible movie mean anything in the bigger scheme, and is it alright to laugh at the performances of those who never became the big actors they wanted to be? If something has fans and mean something to people, is it really a failure at all?

A good way to describe this film is as a mix between "Catfish" and "Exit Through the Gift Shop," two of my favorite documentaries and both of which are questionable in their authenticity. Best Worst Movie has the same disturbing, saddening human revelations that Catfish had, and features a foreign artist oblivious to his own mistakes as seen in Exit Through the Gift Shop, not to mention the thematic similarities about what constitutes true art. The most troubling thing about Best Worst Movie, however, is that there are no doubts that this is an authentic documentary, meaning that troubled, oblivious people such as Troll 2 actress Margo Prey exist.

This isn't a perfect documentary in any way. It drags on for too long, it tries to focus on too many different things, and in the end a lot of the meaning taken away from the film is up to the viewer, since many of the themes aren't articulated in the most coherent way. Still, as a whole, Best Worst Movie really made me think. I'm still thinking about it, and probably will for a long time. Perhaps the most amazing part is that the lasting impression left by this documentary wouldn't be possible without each and every person, no matter where they are now, being a part of a surreal, terrible film named Troll 2.