Peter Charney’s review published on Letterboxd:
After a string of 12+ hour days working on an independent feature film, I watched American Movie with a small group from the team—a viewing experience impossible to separate from the film’s content (especially as we collectively nodded on and off from the exhaustion of making a movie). What struck me most was the reminder of how much of a privilege it is to make any movie at all: to have even the most modest resources and people in place, while we give so much of ourselves mentally and physically to make it happen. There’s something undeniably beautiful about creating something with a community out of a simple love for it. Even if our circumstances are significantly different from those of the film's subjects, there remains a powerful connection to the tradition of all who have made a movie before us.
Though I knew the general premise of American Movie going in, I was still surprised by the humor and pathos Chris Smith captures in his portrait of Mark Borchardt, a financially struggling but relentlessly driven amateur filmmaker, and the community that rallies around him. The film offers an unflinchingly harsh view of the “American Dream,” highlighting the tension between one’s responsibilities to others and the all-consuming passion that can drive someone into the ground. It’s a complex moral question, as the act of making films demands a level of sacrifice that goes beyond that of most other forms of artistic expression. Even so, there’s something especially poignant in recognizing Borchardt’s potential and vision, knowing that perhaps, in a different set of circumstances, he might have found his audience.
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