American Movie (1999)

I'd been wanting to rent this DVD for sometime after reading a lot about this documentary. I was happy they included his short film Coven in the extras.
Watched Coven first. A very low budget, black and white film about a freaky self help group. Glad I didn't pay $8 bucks to see it at Sundance when I was there. The movie did nothing for me, and the flimsy plot with bad dialogue was hard to follow. Rating: D-

American Movie, the documentary about the process of making Coven, and his first feature film, yet to be completed, Northwestern, was very entertaining. Slow and drawn out at times, but entertaining nonetheless.

A better title of the film would have been "How some white trash bums from Milwaukee managed to complete any film-making while drinking gallons of beer and dodging bill collectors."

Speaking of Bill, Uncle Bill was the hilight of this movie. A great scene is of Mark giving Uncle Bill a Thanksgiving Day bath after he got Bill drunk on Pepppermint Schnapps. You can't make this stuff up. That's why I love documentaries.

Rating: B-