Rick’s Flicks Picks » This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Films on Film

This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Films on Film

4 09 2008

Last week, SON OF RAMBOW hit DVD (for some unknown reason you can’t purchase it on Amazon yet, but it’s available to rent at Netflix). Inspired by this delightful film, This Weekend’s Film Festival is looking at films that deal with the movie making process. We have kids making movies. We have professionals making indie movies. We have a movie about a newsreel cameraman. We have a doc about a clueless horror film maker. And we have a fictional account of an infamously bad horror film maker.

SON OF RAMBOW kicks off the lineup. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a young bou being raised in an ultra-religious family. So when notorious troublemaker Lee Carter (Will Poulter) introduced him to the first Rambo film, he is changed forever. Will teams up with Lee to create their own sequel to FIRST BLOOD. Director Garth Jennings captures the joy that fills a young kid when a certain film ignites their imagination. The larger-than-life tale injects whimsy into the story, giving the production a hint of fantasy. Jennings isn’t interested in accurately capturing the process of little kids making a film, but capturing the euphoria of little kids making a film. Milner and Pouter are charming young actors who make us believe in their film, as well as their growing friendship. As I said in my original review, “It’s the kind of inspiring film that might make some of the teens who watch want to go out and make GRANDSON OF RAMBOW.”

You wouldn’t think that a straight look at the making of a film could be better than the film it is chronicling, but BAADASSSSS! accomplishes just that. Beginning the Saturday doubleheader, this indie production from Mario Van Peebles tells the story of his father Melvin’s struggles to get his landmark SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG made. As I said in my original review, “I didn’t finish watching this film and like SWEET SWEETBACK’S better, but I have much more respect for it.” Like no other film dealing with the filmmaking process, this drama presents each stage from pre-production to distribution. A must-see for anyone interested in getting into the film industry, the powerful and insightful film show Melvin with warts and all, being particularly critical of his choice to make 12-year-old Mario engage in an on-screen sex scene. Through the trials and tribulations of this production, Van Peebles’ film shows the cultural climate of the early 1970s, as well as the film that made it possible for films like SHAFT and SUPER FLY to get made.

The second film of the Saturday bill chronicles a completely different era in film history. Buster Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN follows a fledgling newsreel cameraman who wants to get a job at MGM so he can woo a woman. It goes to show that even in 1928, men got into film to get dates. Brimming with brilliantly orchestrated gags, Keaton operates at top form, setting up comic scenario after comic scenario that will make you laugh out loud. Keaton’s attention to subtle timing is clearly on display as he uses everything from his camera to a missing pair of swimming trunks to a monkey to get a laugh. As for the filmmaking process, viewers get an intriguing look at the nature of the news business at the early part of the 20th century. Lugging massive cameras around, checking lighting and watching their film supplies were just a few of the struggles for these dogged newsreel cameramen. Balancing heart and humor without ever getting maudlin, Keaton takes his cameraman set-up and wrings every joke out of it he can. As I said in my original review, “You could list all the scenes in the film and say each one was a classic.”

AMERICAN MOVIE begins the Sunday lineup with a dose of reality. Well, at least reality seen through the eyes of filmmaker Mark Borchardt. Directed by Chris Smith, this equally humorous and sad documentary chronicles Borchardt as he struggles to finish his short horror film COVEN, which he pronounces COVE-n. Recruiting friends and amateur actors from Wisconsin, the passionate Borchardt has a master plan for his film — if he can sell enough copies of this film, he’ll be able to fund his epic feature-length drama. Borchardt is a fascinating collection of contradictions. As I said in my original review, “In one scene, he can look like an ignoramus and in the next he can surprise you with his sound understanding of film technique and then in the next he’ll seem like a know-it-all blowhard again.” He gets unwavering support from his best friend Mike Schank, a man whose past drug-use has seemed to have left him perpetually stoned. He gets his funding from his aged Uncle Bill, who lives in a dirty trailer while having over $200,000 in the bank. AMERICAN MOVIE is a hilarious look at a man from a small town who dreams of doing things bigger than a man from a small town can do. He might not have the talent, but he has more drive than most.

Speaking of low-talent, high-drive, ED WOOD is the closing film this week. Tim Burton’s masterpiece looks at the life and films of the man often dubbed the worst director of all time. Taking place over the productions of GLEN OR GLENDA, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, Wood’s most infamously bad productions, the hilarious bio-pic shows a man who makes up for his lack of talent with his skill in the art of hustle. Brilliantly played by Johnny Depp, Wood bent corners and compromised anything to get his pictures made and used his charm to lure washed-up actors and C-movie lugs into his productions. The story pays close attention to his relationship with drug-addicted, horror movie legend Bela Lugosi, played in an Oscar-winning performance by Martin Landau. Filmed in black & white, capturing the campy mood of 1950’s horror films, ED WOOD works equally well as a satire of moviemaking and an inspiring tale about following one’s dreams. In regards to Burton’s accomplishment on this film, I said in my original review, “this will be the one they remember him for.”

So tell me what films about filmmaking you like. Like every week, it’s that time where you need to head to the video store, update the rental queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or buy the films on DVD at the below links.