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Baghead

source: Baghead

This movie is one of the more dire examples of indie filmmakers thinking that ANY film which is low-budget and unscripted is automatically brilliant. I am an art school graduate with a very high tolerance for experimentation, and I can dig a very low-key movie if there is some kind of point to it. Even for the "mumblecore" aesthetic, this one tests the limits of just how irrelevant a story can be. It features thoroughly unlikable characters who have minor romantic issues (one has a low-level crush, another a vague sexual attraction) sitting around chatting listlessly in a generic mountain condo. To add insult, this apathetic dialog is captured with hyperactive, aggressive camera-work which never stops moving, favors extreme close-up for 95 percent of the shots, and leaves the very few events that happen in the film out of frame. The "scares" literally involve the characters occasionally startling one another. A barely feature-length film in which even the actors themselves grow visibly more and more bored and sleepy as the movie goes on. If you genuinely do like zero-stakes, zero-production value, shapeless and pointless indie movies, then this may be for you. But do not watch it expecting it to be a horror movie, or a comedy, or a relationship drama, or a parody. It is mostly nothing.

Is Mumblecore an accepted genre? There are still films being made that feature twenty-somethings and their relationships in low budget, often with hand-held digital camera. the Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, writers and directors of this film, are solid in the mumblecore camp. Here we have a mumblecore dramedy that has a horror aspect. It is not a horror film. Chad (Steve Zissis) wants to hook up with Michelle (Greta Gerwig), Michelle wants Matt (Ross Partridge), and Catherine (Elise Muller - Revamped, Vampire Lesbian Kickboxers) is worried about her clicking clock. They all head to a cabin in the woods to write a script. they kick around ideas, but don't get anywhere until Michelle sees someone with a bag over their head. They joke around, thinking it is the others kidding around. But they start to write a script using the baghead idea. It gets funny as Michelle strips thinking it is Matt. When she then tries to scare Catherine thinking it was her, and they all deny it, they really freak. But, they still play the game on each other until Chad swears he sees the baghead while they are all standing together. The ending is not what you expect unless you are familiar with the genre.

The ONLY redeeming thing about the filmmakers of this dung heap is that they managed to make the images stick to the tape. I think Sony actually had more to do with that than the filmmakers. No discernible script... Camera work that is vomit inducing in it's whip pans... focus (what's that?) and lighting that, well, wasn't. I've seen better movies made by elementary school students. Wait, this MAY have been made by elementary school students! OK... the actors get a point for their ability to improv but, thats it. One point above awful only. To call this a "style" of film-making is to give "Style" a bad name. I wonder if the director at the start of this film is channeling the actual filmmakers when he says that he made the film we see for $1000 which is twice what he wanted to spend.

So this is 'mumblecore'? This is the first 'mumblecore' film I've watched and on this evidence, it's unlikely I'll watch anymore. I was hoping for a silly horror film parody, something similar to the recent and infinitely better Rubber featuring a nasty rubber tyre that likes to blow peoples head ups with the power of its little rubber mind. Unfortunately, though Baghead does feature a guy who stands menacingly outside four friends' cabin in the woods with a bag on his head, it also features no surprises, not much of a script and DV cinematography that just seems downright lazy. Beginning with a preachy bit about still being able to make good films on a very low budget, it then proceeds to prove that it doesn't matter what size your budget is, you need some likable characters and some interesting plot developments that aren't obvious about 10-20 minutes before they are revealed. I guess this might be likable if you like 'mumblecore' films like Funny Ha Ha and In Search of a Midnight Kiss but after this I won't be in too much of a hurry to seek them out. If you fancy an unconventional, silly horror film... go watch Rubber... NOW!

It was not the movie I was expecting, but I certainly was not disappointed in any way because of that. I was expecting a "slasher" film, but I'm glad that this wasn't one after all that. Immediately preceding this I watched "Final Exam" which is one of the lamest "slasher" films I've ever seen. At that point I was after more of the same, but maybe a little better (since what could be worse!?). Brilliant acting, script and editing on this little film. Probably people who get to see it will number in the thousands, and counting myself among them, those are lucky people. There is so much information of value in the film. It communicates vividly to the viewer on issues of friendships and relationships and film making and the subtlety's of interaction...that I still can't really do it justice in a little IMDb review. I only ever review movies that blow me away or pi** me off. I can even see merit in both of those extremes. This pretty much blew me away. No way am I expecting to convince anyone to watch this. Really I just hope that the people who made and participated in it see my effort to try and thank them for making such a beautiful thing. I think you guys deserve some recognition and hope you go on to make even better stuff than "Baghead" (but you have your work cut out!). Awesome film. Srsly...you guys. You have great things ahead of you if you don't entirely disconnect from the roots that sprouted the mighty tree of "Baghead".