Best Worst Movie

Rankings are a dubious science. Especially when asking those with a limited knowledge to rank something that requires more than a Cliff Note education. We have all seen movies but seeing a movie does not make us an expert on the subject of Film. There are countless lists of top ten movies being made every year about films. These lists range all genre's and sub-genre's and of course, here in the U.S.A, the culmination of ranking and award, the Academy Awards. The debate over the top movies of all time certainly gets the most attention but the worst movie of all time. Well that's a completely different light all together.

If one were to scower the internet sights of bad movies, one would see a few titles constantly appearing on each different website. I'm sure you would come across the film Troll 2 (Claudio Fragasso, 1990). The film is a horror movie about a family who goes on vacation in a town that is inhabited by Goblins who want to eat them. My experience with Troll 2 came about at a young age when the film made its way to cable television and HBO. I understood that the film was supposed to be a horror film but this was not a horror film that I was familiar with. The quality of the film did not look like other horror movies nor did the film seem horrific. There was something very different about the film but being young I could not figure out what that was. I remember being grossed out by the actions of the monsters and even the monsters themselves were a bit creepy. Now years later Troll 2 comes to life in a different way through the documentary Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson, 2009). And now I understand fully what made Troll 2 so different.



With Best Worst Movie Michael Stephenson tries to figure out why exactly Troll 2 became one of the worst movies ever. The film primarily focuses on George Hardy. Hardy played the father in Troll 2 and his life after Troll 2 is one of success. George is a dentist in a small town in Alabama, he is well known for his dentistry and general joyous attitude towards people. Michael Stephenson, who himself was in Troll 2 as a young child actor, follows George as he discovers the cult following of Troll 2 and reconnects with other cast members.



Throughout the film George attends midnight screenings of Troll 2 and conducts Q and A sessions with audience members. George is not ashamed that Troll 2 is a terrible film. Of course those who like Troll 2 like the poor acting, strange dialogue and the films lack of production value. For those who love Troll 2 they equate the film to watching a train wreck. But the documentary shows that Troll 2 being labeled the worst movie is as much a compliment as being the best movie ever. The popularity of the film surprises George and other cast members who go to screenings and what is looked at as a stain by the actors of Troll 2 becomes more a less a badge of honor.

What is obvious about Best Worst Movie is that time has a way of giving perspective. Troll 2 is still a bad movie but with Best Worst Movie looking at the cult phenomena of Troll 2 there is regeneration even in poor efforts. We all have the potential of being the worst at something and that may never change but the way we attempt says something about our character. And that often makes us better and sometimes gives us a good story to tell.

October Country

Most recently my mother was putting together some scrap books about different parts of our family. There was a book devoted to my brother, an other book devoted to family pets and one devoted to myself. There are stories that come flooding to my mind when looking at old photos. Stories that not only define who I am now but what kind of family my family was. We have all heard the cliche of "a picture is worth a thousand words." When you take those words and put them together what kind of story do you get and what kind of story does one get when thousands of pictures are put together? October Country (Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher, 2009) is a film that can be easily defined as a portrait of the Mosher family. Pictures and portraits combined that tell a story. The film traces the story of the Mosher's from Halloween to the following Halloween. In this time period the filmmakers portray a family that is held together through the bond of family, even though challenges surround them and the bonds of family are near breaking.

The film opens in a windy October day in a cemetery in Mohawk Valley New York. The voice of Dottie Mosher explains how the grandparents of the Moshers were in conflict with each other even after death. The story of each of the grandparents funeral being disrupted by massive wind storms is not only an apt metaphor for the relationship of the grandparents but also for the Mosher family as a whole. The film shows how the Mosher family continues to deal with the "storms" of life but also how resilient the members of the family are even when it seems that all is lost.



What seems to be part of the bond that keeps the family together is their honesty about who they are, the mistakes they have made and their refusal to give up. One could easily look at the Mosher family as dysfunctional and even hopeless. As each member of the family is interviewed there are obvious moments of deep hurt and regret. The father, Don, is a former Vietnam and Gulf War veteran who is hard edged and carries memories that are a burden. His sister Denise lives alone and is involved in witchcraft. Her and Don do not get along and their problems have created a deep rift in their relationship. Daneal is one of Dottie's granddaughters who herself has a child and seems to have been mixed up in poor relationships. Donna is the mother of Daneal and Desi, she seems burned out by the choices of her life. Desi is the spunky younger daughter of Donna, who seems innocent but full of knowledge of her families problems. Besides the immediate family members, the family has taken in an older foster child named Chris. Chris's past is full of mischief and crime and his presence in the family seems transient.

The family is aware that the past seems to repeat itself with the women of the family. The conflicts within the family may seem at times bent on selfishness but in the end each of the members of the family won't abandon each other. Dottie strength and resilience of taking care of her children, grandchildren and foster children is at times beyond comprehension. Her actions may not seem influential but her actions are contagious in that when Daneal, Donna, Don or Desi seem like caving in to the hardships in their life they keep pressing forward. This even shows up in Chris who has a propensity to be resilient even when left with nothing.



The filmmakers mix interviews with shots of nature and the surrounding area of where the family lives. There is a connection between the weather and the problems that the family faces. The family is in just as much a struggle in winter as in summer. Relief comes only in small parts and Halloween seems like one of the ways that the family can come together and leave behind all of their problems. In one part of the film Don speaks about the ghosts that exist from the past, and the only thing to do is make peace with them. October Country is a cry for peace for the Mosher family. One can only hope that they will have that peace. But October Country also allows us to evaluate our family, to look at our disfunction's, problems and pain and try to come to peace with them.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

When I was in sixth grade, 1995 or so, I started to really get into reading books. If there was a book on World War 2 or Michael Crichton I was going to get my hands on it no matter what. The way I usually got the books was through mail order. My family would get catalogs that sold books and I would fill out the ordering form, I would exchange some sort of work for my parents to cut a check, some postage and then wait. Usually the typical six to twelve weeks. I had to wait. Immediacy was a luxury and most times I would forget that there were books coming and then one day a package would be awaiting me and new books would be ready to be read. For some reason, the notion of waiting and time was on my mind while watching the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010).

Exit Through the Gift Shop centers on the story of Thierry Guetta, an obsessed videographer/cum-filmmaker who's full on head dive into street art and vandalism leads him to the top of respectability among the best street artists of the world. Thierry begins his journey as a man who's obsession with filming everything in his life. His obsession to never miss a moment of his life leads him to filming Space Invader, a street artist known for placing mosaics of the video game icons of the aliens from Space Invaders throughout cities. From Space Invader he films other artists and begins to develop an idea for making a documentary film about street artists but one artist alludes him, that is the infamous Banksy.



Banksy's reputation for subversion and social commentary through stenciling and placing doctored paintings in museums led him to becoming a prolific street artist in Britain. As Banksy began to stretch his horizons to other countries, Thierry's desire to film the street artist leads him to dead ends until a fortuitous encounter which propels Thierry into Banksy's world. Thierry is absorbed into the subversion of Banksy's art but also into Banksy's private world. Banksy sees Thierry as a filmmaker who may very well be able to create an accurate account of street art and street artists. Thierry's filming stretches over nine years, with hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage and his final product is nothing more than snippets of those years. The amount of time and footage that Thierry was able to have with making a film was futile and in Banksy's eyes a piece of crap.



The world in which Thierry captured on film became the world in which he would embody. Thierry becomes a street artist and is caught up in the idea of taking up an artist name for himself and becoming as big as Banksy. He takes over an abandoned television studio to develop an arts show that would showcase his prolific work, even though his time as a street artist is limited. In almost a coup to the system of street artistry, Thierry becomes a sensation by being sensational. When looking at Thierry's art work one can see that he took what he liked best from the artists that he followed for many years and incorporates those ideas as his own. The art show becomes nothing more than a temple to worship and give praise to Thierry, but then to, in turn, sell himself and his work without even a hesitation.

The immediacy in which Thierry becomes famous at the end of the film is coupled with the amount of time Thierry spent filming street artists. Banksy looks at Thierry as someone who has cheated the system of street artistry and has not put in the time. But then there is the seven or so years of just filming and watching artists. I can not help but think that as we are capable of ingesting media and artistry through various forms of new media, are we creating the immediacy of artistry in various mediums?Does the time it takes to perfect a craft now become compromised due to the access in which we have online or is the "how to guide" mentality creating an immediacy that is shallow and hallow? These questions come from the fact that Thierry employs graphic artists to print images he finds and then doctor those images and then selling them as art. It is as if Thierry has created a factory mentality to street art but is ignorant of the excess.



There was a time when an artist would go under the tutelage of a senior/professional artist and learn tricks and trades that would help the fledgling artist develop his craft. Time was expected and time seemed to teach something that could only be learned through itself. Exit Through the Gift Shop can be seen as an exposé of street art or the exposing of Thierry Guetta and his art. If anything the film is a swan song to street art. Sure young people will go into the streets and literally put their mark on the world. But now that cultural capital and commercialization have infiltrated the ranks and the common man being able to mass produce said art and make a profit, street art's viability seems to wain. But then again all art movements come and pass.