American Movie

In one of the most amusing documentaries of recent years, the film-maker Chris Smith (whose American Job was shown in the Fake theme programme in 1997) introduces a film fanatic from a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Borchardt grew up with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This long-haired heavy-metal fan, like a modern-day Don Quichote, has an enormous energy and capacity to inspire people. At first we see him working on an ambitious new film project, entitled Northwestern. However the horror film-maker also has to put the final touches to a previous project, a short film entitled Cloven. To do this he involves his whole family and circle of friends, who undergo the accompanying physical deprivation uncomplainingly. His best friend Mike is his great help: a pretty weird but gentle guitarist who once used too many drugs. Even more special may be Mark’s sickly Uncle Bill, who lives in pretty difficult conditions, but has enough money in the bank to finance the film. In the meantime, the production difficulties and Borchardt’s monomaniacal, film crazy nature have a disastrous effect on his marriage and relationships. Despite the fact that the tragic-comic characters in American Movie could easily be the object of derision, the film is also an ode to the independent film-maker and a moving analysis of the American Dream.