American Movie

Year: 1999
Genre: Documentary
Directed: Chris Smith
Stars: Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank, Monica Borchardt, Ken Keen, Alex Borchardt, Christ Borchardt, Tom Schimmels, Matt Weisman, Bill Borchardt, Joan Petrie, Tommy Dallance, Tom Beach
Production: NorthWest Production

American Movie is a delightfully humorous documentary about the making of a short film over a three year period. Mark Borchardt is our foolishly charming subject who struggles and struggles despite insurmountable odds. He lives in his parent's basement in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, scrounging money through various odd-jobs and a tiny gaggle of investors. Acting as writer, director, co-producer, editor and star, Mark hopes to finish the horror short Coven (which he pronounces Coe-van) without resources, marketability or talent. Yet through all his setbacks, Mark keeps his head high which garners the admiration of local theater talent, slacker friends and his family.

American Movie is, at times, a very cringe-worthy movie to sit thought. Mark is armed only with a small film camera and an unabashed love of Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). He naively thinks that's enough to make it to Hollywood and in his words "achieve the American dream." Yet Mark's intensity and enthusiasm for his movie are completely at odds with everything and everyone around him. Testimonial after testimonial from his mother, his uncle and the gaggle of bit players he hired, point to a man needlessly suffering for his art. "I always thought he'd wind up a serial killer," muses one of Mark's former high school friends. His intensity as well as his broken home life certainly seem to be pointing in that direction.

Yet American Movie is not a mean-spirited take down of the American dream, with Mark it's unwilling patsy. Most of the camera's perspective hones in on the very human need to accomplish something. Despite efforts to paint Mark as a modern day Don Quixote, each interview subject ultimately concludes Mark is "one persistent kid." And of course Mark does has his allies including Mark's long suffering girlfriend Joan Petrie, and Mark's layabout best friend Mike Schank.

The film takes a few jabs at the expense of small town naivety, especially when Mike is on screen. Yet behind the playful ribbing there's a lot of heart to American Movie. It features a moment in time concerning a true amateur; someone with no experience but anxious to make his mark. American Movie is warts-and-all documentary filmmaking. Those who are considering a career in the seventh art need to see this film and take stock in their plans, their resources and their talent (or lack thereof). What's clear by the end of the documentary is Mark Borchardt will not give up. He sees film not as a career choice but as a calling. In the years since, Mark has struggled to continue making and featuring in films though he's done so consistently for a few years. Some see American Movie and see sad, hopeless people searching for glory; "I say thou hast seen nothing yet."

Final Grade: B+