[size=3]"Baghead" is a highly clever and unusual film. It's safe to say that there's never been anything like it. I[/size][size=3]t's filled with postmodern self-referentiality and plenty of snarky winks to the smarter and better-educated members of the… More
[size=3]"Baghead" is a highly clever and unusual film. It's safe to say that there's never been anything like it. I[/size][size=3]t's filled with postmodern self-referentiality and plenty of snarky winks to the smarter and better-educated members of the audience. But it doesn't add up to that much. Brilliant set-up, not much pay-off.[/size]
[size=3][img]http://images.apple.com/moviesxml/s/sony/posters/baghead_l200805121624.jpg[/img][/size]
[size=3]I had a good time and enjoyed the cleverness. I laughed more during this film than any other film all year, and the humor was the smartest by far of 2008. I also very much appreciated the hand-made quality because it shows that people can make films without $10 million. But "Baghead" ultimately doesn't have anything very significant to say.[/size]
[size=3]Immediately setting a humorously postmodern tone, "Baghead" opens inside an art-house movie theater. The four protagonists (two men and two women) are sitting together watching an underground film. Right away you are put into an odd situation as if you are watching yourself on screen -- a movie audience watching a movie audience. The film they're watching, which we see bits of, turns out to be hilariously ponderous. Thus "Baghead" opens with a clever send-up of art-house cinema -- in a sense "Baghead" is poking fun at itself.[/size]
[size=3]But quickly "Baghead" shifts its focus to the film-making as opposed to the film-watching process. The main characters turn out to be actors and filmmakers, possibly stand-ins for [b]Jay[/b] and [b]Mark Duplass[/b], the brothers who created "Baghead." [/size][size=3]Struggling to kick-start their creativity, the four thirtysomethings go out to the woods together to dream up a movie. Their first creative discussion is hilarious. The leader of the gang asks, "OK, so what's the film going to be about?" Everyone stares at him blankly. [/size]
[img]http://www.aolcdn.com/pmms/productpagemovies/05/07/2664427[/img]
[size=3]As drunkenness sets in, strong romantic and sexual entanglements tying this foursome together start to surface. These are explored to great comic effect. You will laugh many times in the first half of "Baghead." The Duplass brothers have a very good eye for comedy, and the actors bring the romantic yearnings to life in such an authentic way that you wonder if you're watching a documentary. This is another odd aspect of "Baghead," and it's one of the numerous ways that the film resembles "Blair Witch Project." (Other similarities are the constant use of hand-held cameras, the absence of costuming and make-up, the apparent use of improvised dialogue, and an ultra-remote setting.)[/size]
[img]http://www.firstshowing.net/img/indiegems-baghead.jpg[/img]
[size=3]Abruptly there's a shift to horror, which is also very effective. A person with a paper bag over his or her head starts appearing and standing silently in a menacing way. The big question: is it a psycho stalking them, or is one of the foursome playing a practical joke on the others? This uncertainty is manipulated very well. My eagerness to find out the answer operated on two levels. The obvious one is at the level of plot resolution. The whole point of the mystery genre is to get answers. [/size]
[size=3]But more interestingly, I was intrigued to find out where this unusual film was going to go. What would a postmodern horror-comedy become? A horror or a comedy? Or something else? I had no idea, and I wondered if somehow the resolution would yield fascinating insights. But alas, when all the questions are answered, one isn't left with much. "Baghead" is a fun brain-teaser with a lot of humor and some good horror moments, but ultimately it's no more meaningful [/size][size=3]than "Blair Witch Project." [/size]
[size=3]One could think of "Baghead" as a love letter to cinema itself, a celebration of and also poking fun at the creative impulse that drives people to make films, act in them, and watch them. But the cinematic impulse to me is not in and of itself very interesting. The fact that people pick up cameras and record things isn't inherently intriguing. It's only interesting when something worthwhile is recorded. And in that case, it's not the recording process that's interesting, but the thing being recorded.[/size]
[size=3]In this case, the Duplass brothers didn't dream up something very interesting to record, but they had great fun along the way.[/size]
