AMERICAN MOVIE (1999)
Label: SPHE
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 104 Minutes 42 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director:
Cast: Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank, Matt Weisman
The 1999 doc American Movie follows the no-budget movie-making exploits of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin denizen Mark Borchardt, who is obsessed with making a movie. At the top of the doc he's trying to get a film called "Northwestern" rolling, but after several just a few production meetings into it he realizes that he just doesn't have the resources to make it, so he switches gears, throwing his passion into making a horror film called "Coven", which he hilariously mispronounces with a long "o" sound, a film he started making in 1994.
The 1999 doc American Movie follows the no-budget movie-making exploits of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin denizen Mark Borchardt, who is obsessed with making a movie. At the top of the doc he's trying to get a film called "Northwestern" rolling, but after several just a few production meetings into it he realizes that he just doesn't have the resources to make it, so he switches gears, throwing his passion into making a horror film called "Coven", which he hilariously mispronounces with a long "o" sound, a film he started making in 1994.
This guy is totally movie obsessed, and his enthusiasm is quite infectious, to both us and those around him, but he's also an alcoholic newspaper delivery guy with massive debt, few resources, and a taste for booze, which when combined with his movie-making passion makes for one of the most entertaining docs of all-time. He has an indominable DIY spirit, but he also has few to little resources in which to make those aspiration come true, and seeing him trying scrape together this indie horror flick with myriad setbacks and stumbles, is both a testament to his passion for film, but also to just how misguided he is, and completely unable to see he's in over-his0head, which is also his greatest strength. When I first saw this I was convinced it was a mockumentary, something along the lines of Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration, but no, this is real, and it's just bonkers and totally entertaining from start to finish, and surprisingly heart-warming as well.
I love the scene of Mark going through his mail and is opening bills, lamenting that he owes taxes, his phone bill is overdue, and he's broke, he owes child support, but then he gets a credit card in the mail and says "Oh God, kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card. I don't believe it, man. Life is kind of cool sometimes."; but my favorite line is when they are do line reading with the local actors and he complains to his best pal Mike that "They're making a mockery of my words, man. This whole thing is turning out to be a theatrical mockery. You understand that, Mike?", then proceeds to give his own line reading which is over-the-top and pretty terrible. I thought his kind-hearted pal Mike is sort of the heart and soul of the film, a former alcoholic and drug addict on the road to recovery but who is clearly a casualty of a partying life-style, he's off the drugs and booze but now he's addicted to scratch-off lottery tickets, reasoning that "when you play the lottery, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose... but it's better than using drugs or alcohol, because when you use drugs and alcohol, especially drugs, you always lose". Hard to argue with that logic to a degree, I guess, but he's a standup friend for sure who more than anyone else goes above and beyond to help his pal Mark out in any capacity he can to make this dang movie.
Then there's Mark's own family who are helping him out, including his Swedish-born mother who struggles to operate the 16mm camera for him during one of his own scenes, his somewhat mysterious father, and then there's his elderly Uncle Bill, who loans him $3,000 with Mark's guarantee that once the film is made he can sell 3,000 copies of the it on VHS for $14.95 a pop and repay him. That Uncle Bill seems like he's in some state of dementia adds an element of unsavoriness to the proceedings, but also quite a bit of entertainment as Mark plies him with alcohol, and later tries in van to get him to utter some ADR from the passenger seat of his car,
It's a wild fly-on-the-wall doc that is a love-letter to the independent spirit of Mark Brouchard and independent filmmaking, in ways it sort of feels like a mockumentary crossed with a weird fly-on-the-wall feel of something like Gummo, and every time I watch I am utterly fascinated by Brouchard and the cast of characters that orbit around him while trying to make this horror flick.
Audio/Video: American Movie (1999) surprisingly arrives on 4K Ultra HD framed in 1.33:1 fullscreen from Sony, the documentary footage was shot on 16mm and it looks authentic to it's low-budget 16mm roots, meaning it's plenty grain, but it also has nice texture and detail. Colors looks solid, the Dolby Vision (HDR) color-grade offers well-saturated primaries, but it's not exactly the sort of film that really needs DV/HDR either. The biggest benefit of the WGC spectrum is deeper blacks which help with contrast as well.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. It's a doc, so it's dialogue heavy and the track is solid, everything sounded clean and accurate to the original sound production.
Extras carried over from the previous Blu-ray edition include the Director and Cast Audio Commentary featuring Director Chris Smith, producer Sarah Price, Mark Borchardt, and Mike Shank; 37-minutes of Deleted Scenes; and the 3-min Theatrical Trailer. Something not present on the previous Blu-ray that turns up here is pretty exciting, we get the 26-min "Coven" Short Film by Mark Borchardt! This probably makes this worth the double-dip for fans like myself who probably wouldn't normally upgrade a doc from Blu-ray to 4K Ultra HD, but for me I think it's worth it to own the flick the doc is about!
The single-disc release arrives housed in a black keepcase with a single-sided wrap featuring the theatrical artwork, which is replicated on the Slipcover, which I would imagine is limited to the first-pressing only.
Special Features:
- "Coven" Short Film by Mark Borchardt (36:20)
- Director and Cast Audio Commentary
- Deleted Scenes (36:56)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:44)
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