07/08/2002 Entry:
"Erin Brockovich - Steven Soderbergh (2000)
Home Movie - Chris Smith (2001)
Heavy Metal Parking Lot - Jeff Krulik (1986)"

Brief notes on some things I've seen recently

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Erin Brockovich was fairly disappointing. It was shot pretty standardly, or at least standard for Soderbergh. His use of jump cuts was all over the place, it was almost like he was trying to liven things up. The performances were OK, everything was fine. There was just nothing particularly special about it. The film ran long as well, it was in desperate need of some tightening. The one thing I will give it some kudos for is its portrayal of someone doing good who you have mixed feelings about. There are many scenes in which Erin is portrayed as a very unlikeable person, yet she's out there doing good things and helping people. That aspect of it I enjoyed, as it toyed with our expectations and preconceptions somewhat and added a level of complexity that normally wouldn't exist. OK, I enjoyed Aaron Eckhart's performance as George too. Be that as it may, it wasn't enough to save the movie.

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I enjoyed Home Movie quite a bit more than American Movie. My main problem with American Movie was that everyone seemed to be celebrating this guy who didn't deserve to be celebrated. Here's a guy who has a kid to support, yet he has no steady job and pours everything he has into making a movie and what is left over goes to beer. If this guy had no responsibilities in the world, then I could see that what he was doing is great and entertaining. Whenever he had his kid around though, I just felt kind of ill. Home Movie was quite a bit more enjoyable, because the subjects were more enjoyable. As a matter of fact, the subjects were so much more enjoyable that I would have loved to have seen the movie extended. An hour wasn't enough to get everything in. Either that, or he could have cut a person or two out. Hopwfully there will be more footage on an eventual DVD release.

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I had never seen Heavy Metal Parking Lot before, although I had heard about it for years. Having lived through many such parking lots myself back in high school, I was somewhat amused for about five minutes, after which things became tiresome. If anything makes this at all interesting, its the historical context we now have. Here's a collection of shirtless men raving about how Judas Priest kicks ass and rules, with women going on about how they want to jump Rob Halford's bones and fuck his brains out. One can only wonder what their reaction was when Halford came out of the closet and start headlining gay pride parades. Too bad Krulik can't go back and interview them all again.

Replies: 2 comments

Greg, Some thoughts regarding your comments on American Movie: I find that the point-of-view people ascribe to the film-- i.e. that it's making fun of these people, or, in your case, that it's celebrating someone who shouldn't be celebrated-- is much more reflective of their biases than of Chris Smith's intentions. I don't think the film is celebrating or making fun of Mark Borchardt, but showing how his dreams are simultaneously grand, silly, inspiring, and irresponsible. Those scenes you complain about, where he's shirking debt or interacting with his kids or drinking heavily, exist to temper the viewer's enthusiasm for his moviemaking brio. As a piece of documentary portraiture, I think the film is pretty rich. Scott Posted by Scott Tobias @ 07/17/2002 02:11 AM CST

Scott, You are undoubtedly correct. I mean, just one paragraph above I praised Erin Brockovich for portraying a complex and complete person who I didn't like, and below I talk about how I disliked American Movie for the same reason. This undoubtedly stems from my like or dislikes of the particular characters in question, or rather my ability to accept one set of flaws while despising the other. For more evidence, see this entry about Jesus' Son or wait for my soon to appear entry on ivans xtc. Obviously I have a blind spot when it comes to drunks and junkies. However, something else occurs to me as I am sitting here and I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. I may very well have felt somewhat annoyed by the fact that someone who shirked their responsibilities in life to make a cheap slasher movie got it made and had their quest celebrated. Whereas I never could get a film of personal and emotional drama made in part because I was trying to juggle numerous time-consuming obligations which I could have easily blown off to go make a movie, but I didn't and I don't see anyone making a film about me. Not that I'm bitter or anything. As far as the greater question which is alluded to in this discussion - should your personal biases and blind spots affect the critical judgement of whether or not a film is "good" - I can only speak for myself in saying that personally I often wish I could disconnect form from content, but I really just find it virtually impossible. Sometimes a movie comes out and it puts forth a message that I really just don't like, and I can't get past that. I won't say that this or that film should be banned or shouldn't have been made or what have you, but I find it very difficult to disconnect my own personally strong held opinions on various topics (like heroin use) from the formal elements of a film (like Jesus' Son, which was a very nice looking film which maintained a nice airy mood throughout but I still didn't like it.) If I were a professional critic though, I hope that I would have the self-awareness to hand these films off to someone who could handle them more objectively. Greg Posted by gdd @ 07/17/2002 02:31 PM CST