I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Overrated and overhyped

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's clear to me in reading the negative reviews that those people really missed the point of what this whole film was about. To this day, this movie remains one of my favorite documentaries of all time. The more you watch it, the more you realize that there is a little Mark Borschardt in all of us, a wild-eyed dreamer. While the realities of his life are stark and his relationships with his family and children seem dysfunctional, he is an entertaining figure with idealism that is larger than life.

Outside of Milwaukee, Mark Borchardt is trying to make his independent film Northwestern. He's a film enthusiast with no money and some minor experience in filmmaking. Using relatives, his credit card, slackers friends and open casting, Mark struggles to pull everything together. He decides to finish his horror short Coven and use the proceeds to finance his dream movie. It's a long winding unexpected journey.I think most people took this movie as a straight up documentary and enjoy the real world of guerrilla indie filmmaking. I take it a little differently. It never seem real that the documentary is far superior to anything that Borchardt could achieve. This movie seems set up somehow. Yet I can't really say that it is. This conflict colors my enjoyment of this movie. I couldn't really decipher how much of this is true and how much is true for the camera.

No Hollywood hasn't got this lazy yet that they just tell you what it is and where it was made, American Movie is a documentary about a man with perhaps the greatest divide between ambition and ability currently working in film, and his efforts to make his debut film.As a digression though I have found altogether too many films that just say "whack American in front of something and there's your title!", maybe it's familiarity, maybe misplaced nationalism, but these films always seem to make a few bucks, leading to more and more.So we have "American… Pie / Gangster / Psycho / Beauty / History X / Splendor / Dreamz All in the last decade off the top of my head, with dozens more out there.Back to Mark Borchardt the subject of this American Movie. Mark is a movie devotee who clearly has at least put in the time watching and studying film. He has grand plans to become an established filmmaker in his own right, he just needs to make his debut short film to drum up some money so that he can make his name with a full length feature.The film will be called NorthWestern, and while early goings of this documentary introduce us to many people already associated and indoctrinated into the process it is clear early that this won't be a tale of cinematic triumph against the odds.Even Mark's most ardent supporters admit that years have passed with little or no progress. Mark is idealistic, ambitious, passionate and sincere. But he is also delusional at times, ill equipped and has a chasm between his ideas and capabilities.Low budget is low budget, and it worked for Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, but Mark is an ideas man without a clue. In any case the intrigue isn't what the film will be like or even if it will be finished, it is the people dragged into Mark's life because or at times despite the film.Mark's Mum is his biggest supporter, his Dad seems to be hopeful but doubting, and resentful of Mark's open animosity and hatred of a 9 – 5 existence, seeing as that is what his Dad himself did. Mark has kids, exes, a girlfriend, cast and crew to deal with day by day. But it seems only one true friend in Mike Shenk (who deserves his own movie – I'll get to him) and dear old Uncle Bill.Bill is an elderly man who Mark nags incessantly for money *ahem* film financing capital, with tales of future Scorcese style glory and Snyder sized box office returns until poor old Uncle Bill gets exhausted and relents… again… fully expecting never to see a penny for his outlay.It seems Mark's unerring sense of self belief and endless optimism convinces others to get involved without the slightest assurance or inkling that anything will ever eventuate.But even Mark has doubt at times, it is obvious to all that when he drinks his resentment of authority and a more hardworking existence rise quickly to the surface, and he lacks the ability to say "no" to alcohol, allowing it to set himself further and further behind, both financially and cinematically.But enough with the serious stuff. American Movie is a well made doco about a man trying to make his own personal Citizen Cain with a Troll 2 budget and skillset. Mark is enigmatic and at times compelling but it is Mike Shenk who provides the reason to watch American Movie.Mike is a self confessed unemployed former habitual drug user. He never seems "there" even though he is right… there. His dazed expression and half breathed high pitched voice continually suggest a room with the "Vacant" signs up, and his bizarre stories to nowhere only provide further assurance.In limited screen time Mike steals the film with his rambling stories, acoustic guitar noodlings and tales of personal punishment suffered through his previous drug abuse, all laced with a familiar blank smile and a shrill girlish laugh.When Mike steps to the mic (Beastie Boys style) late in the film and lets loose with the most blood-curdling scream I can recall on film for audio looping it is simultaneously incredible, bewildering and hilarious that this deathwail can come from such an unassuming stoner.Final Rating – 6 / 10. Mark Borchardt is a walking, drinking, profane, bespectacled dichotomy, and evidence that film smarts don't necessarily mean smart films. On this occasion it does make for compelling viewing – albeit perhaps more about a man triumphing over his limited abilities.

This documentary tags along as independent filmmaker Mark Borchardt struggles to make his own cult-quality film. It's a sincerely one-of-a-kind, hilarious. and heartfelt film, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1999.Using relatives, local theater talent, slacker friends, his MasterCard, and $3,000 from his Uncle Bill, Mark Borchardt strives over three years to finish "Coven," a short horror film. This is his story.Mark is behind on his child support payments, he drinks too much, and all the movies he has managed to make have been unreleased. he wants to make a feature-length film called Northwestern, but he needs to make money on this horror short to do it.It was really fascinating. Uncle Bill may have given him $3,000, but he didn't really think he would get his money back. The kitchen cabinet scene was hilarious, but I understand it didn't make the final cut of the film.Anyone thinking of making a film has to see this movie. Everyone else should see it just to see the cost involved, both financial and personal.