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The American independent sector is generally so vital, so fresh (not to mention an uplifting alternative to the obvious, overweight outings which Tinseltown churns out) that you assume that switched-on film makers, brimming with ideas, are knocking out films every other week.
The reality, however, in the case of "American Movie" is just a tad different. Independent director Chris Smith, who only has one film - "American Job" - to his credit, opts to tell the story of fellow indie film-maker, Mark Borchardt, as he hustles and tussles, sweats and swears, drinks and gets depressed, all of it in order to achieve the seemingly impossible, namely making his first full-length feature, "Northwestern".
Borchardt, who recently enjoyed a real taste of stardom on the David Letterman show, comes across as super-obsessive to the point of lunacy, a young man whose crazed desire to make a film probably makes him forget to eat, sleep and brush his teeth. He certainly sports an oddball charisma, as do his right-hand man Mike Schank (a soft-centred dope hooked on his guitar and playing the lottery) and Mark's Uncle Bill, a scruffy, out-to-lunch old git whom his nephew arm-twists into coughing up the funding. Mark's own eccentricity, however, doesn't make him any less prone to pursuing the American Dream.
Smith, presumably because he understands the sheer grind of film-making, shoots "American Movie" in a spirit of wide-eyed tolerance, happy to let the cast of clowns speak (and swear) for themselves. He captures both the intensity and the perpetual humour of assorted situations, one of which involves Mark bathing old Bill and plying him with peppermint schnapps. Another has Mark's mum kneeling on the kitchen floor, working as the new cameraman. At worst (and this is only a small beef), "American Movie" is a series of loose moments; at best these moments come together as Mark restarts "Coven", a grubby-looking horror film he abandoned two years before. I think this was the one involving a graveyard and Mike downing vodka in the back of a truck.
