Review of Best Worst Movie (2009) by Hunter D — 28 Dec 2010

See it right after you see TROLL 2. On the surface it looks like a movie companion for fans of Claudio Fragrasso's terrible in-name-only sequel to the also-bad TROLL, but what BEST WORST MOVIE is really about is the world of minor cult celebrity. Made by Michael Stephenson (the annoying kid from TROLL 2), the movie focuses on George Hardy, a small-town dentist who was also the lead in TROLL 2, his first and only movie role, one looked back upon with mild embarrassment. Hardy looks back on it with laughs, as do most people he knows, that is until he discovers the cult of TROLL 2 fans, and pretty soon Hardy and Stephenson attend screenings of the film, re-enacting the "You don't piss on hospitality!" scene ad-nauseum in front of audiences. Hardy and co. are quickly brought back down to earth once they take the next step by attending the convention circuit, where they encounter an entire universe of people who have attained the same cult status by being in one silly movie like he has.

What's also interesting about the movie is Claudio Fragrasso's befuddled response to how people responded to TROLL 2 here. Fragrasso is a filmmaker not unlike Bruno Mattei or Lucio Fulci, a moviemaking machine who pumps out genre garbage on an assembly line. He seems genuinely touched at first, then mildly repulsed, it's clear that the hipster-inflected idea of liking something ironically is lost on him completely. I always thought Italian hacks could care less about their films, but I've seen very few filmmakers who seem to take their work as seriously as he does. Only someone like Fragrasso could create something as odd as TROLL 2, like Ed Wood, small details like why there happens to be a fire extinguisher on the porch or how Michael got a "double-decker bologna sandwich" seem completely unimportant to him, he instead hyper-focuses on the themes and the big picture. American audiences, however, get hung up on the small details, and sometimes find comedy in the moments when they're ignored. Fragrasso truly feels he understands what it means to be American, his trip to the screenings of his film prove otherwise, if his movie didn't already. There's a bit where some people say TROLL 2 is like a film made by aliens who watched some of Earth's films and then tried to make one of their own. This person probably didn't realize that that statement was completely 100% true.