Memorergi good film but with many flaws

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Steve Pulaski I've stated before that I love to venture out of my comfort zone when it comes to film, and I believe everyone should as well. We can't simply conform to what mainstream Hollywood spoonfeeds us and forces us to see and believe, like American cinema is the best and only kind of cinema. We must challenge our tastes with films of different countries, by different directors, of different styles, and different mediums. I've been swimming in the sea of mumblecore recently, and have now reached my last stop in the Duplass brothers', Jay and Mark, filmography. That stop is Baghead and it was more like being kicked off from a good ride.The brothers would later go on after this film to make what I call "mumblecore with actors," meaning the films are true to the roots and definition of mumblecore, but instead of utilizing amateur actors, they would recruit more well-known stars and challenge their abilities. Baghead is inept in almost every field of filmmaking and even at eighty minutes feels like an assault on patience and tolerance.We get a story concerns two couples who, after attending a film festival hosted by a good friend, become inspired to go to a remote cabin in the wilderness, crossing their fingers that inspiration will dawn on them and they will be able to whip up something. Soon, they start seeing a man with a paper bag on his head outside, and begin penning a screenplay parallel to this. Then, the simple sights become more prolific until the man is visibly stalking them in their cabin.The couples are Matt (Ross Partridge) and Michelle (Greta Gerwig), and Chad (Steve Zissis) and Catherine (Elise Muller). Along the way, convoluted love interests start to form between the two couples and I will spare you the details because it would become a chore on my part and you, the reader, to read about it. It becomes something like Matt likes Catherine but is too afraid to ask her out, and Chad has liked Michelle for a while, etc. These characters are so stock and faceless that it's hard to even make out who is who at times. Assuming you're even interested.At this point in time, the mumblecore movement in cinema was still forming and, while the movement is more ideal for whimsical comedies and light-hearted dramas, nobody ever said a horror film couldn't be constructed following the rules of the genre. Unfortunately, crossbreeding the genres resulted in an unsuccessful film. No atmosphere is created, no believability or interest is structured, and the dialog for the film, which, by the brothers, is the part that is usually taken very seriously, is taken in a haphazard, disorganized manner, with only fragmented screams and vague arguments brewing. It's a complete mess.Baghead concludes on a cheap, indie note, but before that, we have a truly unbelievable twist that isn't even examined or further developed. I conclude by saying it was a smart move on the brothers' part to try and nudge the genre into the limelight by having popular actors in the roles of amateurs. The acting here is yet another problem in this parody (?), satire (?), homage (?) of errors.Starring: Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig, and Elise Muller. Directed by: Jay and Mark Duplass.

galmstadt First off there's something going on in Hollywood. All the mid level independent's are disappearing. The Duplass Brothers who made a couple of shorts both of which I've seen and thought were great ( the Intervention and Scrapple) with wonderful acting and amazing scripting have been producing their work on minuscule budgets. Great!... sounds great to me were it not for the fact that their work is getting worse and worse at an amazingly rapid pace. From impressive shorts to the ultimately lukewarm and overly cute Puffy Chair to this uninspired and utterly disposable filler. I don't know much about the rest of the cast but Steve Zssis is a great actor and I know Mark Duplass himself is a fairly solid actor and knows what's up...so why is it that just about every desperate aspiring actor I've ever met in LA or elsewhere is more interesting and moving and has more behavior than the characters in this film? I found this film pretty dumb and insulting. it wants so badly to be liked and to work kind of well on a number of fronts and to show Hollywood it can make their kind of entertainment with next to nothing that it has done just that...made Hollywood garbage for next to nothing. Big whoop. Gerry Bruckheimer's waiting....I personally hate entertainment most days but I even suggest watching a bigger budget film from a few years back with Neve Cambell. This one works poorly on just about all fronts and is even more repugnant being as these guys actually could probably do something pretty strong if they weren't pandering Hollywood scabs. As a character study of struggling actors and precarious relationships (probably the most interesting approach it could have taken) it's shallow, unfelt callous and uninsightful ....as a scary film it makes you jump successfully all of once and as a comedy it's barely funny at all. What a goddamned shame. waste of talent.

Vorpa The movie features a single shaky cam. This is not because the movie is independent, has a low budget or is part of some dogmatic dogma-movement. Well these three could all be true, but the main reason of a "shaky cam" is that it has relevance for the story, similar to a movie like Blairwitch Project. If you expect fast camera movement, multiple angles, supreme lightning and great special effects you shouldn't watch Baghead at all (and people should not devalue it because it doesn't look like the new Spiderman). So be prepared for primitive (but still quite amazing) photography.Furthermore no one should watch this movie because of the suspense. The suspense is only a minor aspect of Baghead. From time to time it tries to scare you by being as real as possible. Occasionally Baghead succeeds in doing so. Although the average person would feel conned if I tell him this is a thriller or a horror. It is more close to a real life drama.Personally I truly appreciate the endeavour to create a real movie without all the modern techniques. Techniques that so bluntly tell you you are watching something produced. There is no real score, no atonal violins at scary moments, no special effects and so on. Without this kind of tools a lot more weight is put on the acting and the story. The question then is: does the movie survive the lack of all these elements? Yes.The acting is surprisingly refreshing. Although Greta Gerwig (playing Michelle) annoyed me from time to time. The story itself is not original but the characters are convincing, there are many interesting twists and there are reflexive side aspects to the story that lift it far above the average kind of "some people in a mountain shed getting scared" movie. Most importantly the whole movie has a natural flow without any scene feeling constructed for one purpose or the other. If you plan to watch this movie then watch it for the real and convincing manner it is brought to you, not for suspense or Hollywood skills.In my view the colossal problem of Baghead though is the editing. It appears that all footage was neurotically and compulsory preserved in the final film. Quite often entirely predictable scenes drag on and on. Though they may look more real so to speak (for instance the scene where Chad is trying to hit on Michelle), they get one ready for bed immediately, no teeth brushing required. Especially the final scene is horribly slow and you can really hear yourself thinking: "get a move on all right!" In total the movie runs for about 2 hours. In general I like slow and long movies, but this one could really do with a 1:30 running time. It would not just be easier, faster and more accessible, it would have simply been better.Verdict: 6

Jacques98 Hypocrites. You know what the term means. The modest Christian girl that gave you the you're-a-piece-of-ungodly-filth look whenever you slyly grab a feel of your girlfriend's breast, then you found out a few weeks later that the oh-so-modest Christian girl is pregnant (. . . for the third time). Whether it's mature or not, these sort of simple character contradictions make us angry. If someone judges us, then contradicts their own standard, it's nearly impossible for us not to slap their flaw in their face. It's human nature. In a way, that's how I feel reviewing Baghead. Part of me wants to forgive the films faults and admit that I deep-down somewhat enjoyed it, then the other part of me wants to beat its face bloody for its blatant hypocrisy.From the opening scene alone, the Duplass brothers make it clear that this is a parody of pretentious indie films. They laugh at the idea that everything low-budget is automatically a work of art. They buddy-slap each other on the arm and chuckle at how many pretentious indie films, labeled as art, just downright suck. For this, I cheered. Finally, I thought, someone has the balls to head-on assault the fine-cinema-whores. This feeling of satisfaction lasted until about 30 minutes into the film.And then I found out that Baghead was pregnant for the third time. And I was mad.Most of the dialogue in Baghead is improved. I have nothing against this, and for the most part, it worked decently. It certainly added freshness to the stale paint-by-the-numbers horror dialogue we could all recite in a coma if we had to. But then again, the dialogue is far anything special. This isn't Quentin Tarantino, by a long shot. I don't even remember a single line from Baghead, much less praise it for coming up with godly improvised dialogue. In reality, anyone and their half-drunk friends could say the things these characters say. It's a little fresh, but it's nothing special. That's where the first strike of hypocrisy comes in. It's impossible to overlook that the Duplass brothers, who just parodied the pretentiousness of indie films 30-minutes before, now expect to be praised for coming up with some average dialogue that they seem to think is the height of creativity.Likewise, the plot is . . . well, okay, there isn't any real plot, and that's the point. Again, the idea of someone running around with a bag on their head and trying to scare you is fresh, but it's far from special or original or even creative. The movie has a very loose non-plot structure, but when you look at it overall, you see Baghead just treads the same exact cliché ground horror movies have treaded for years. All the predictable clichés are here. Topless girls, romantic subplots, lost friends, phone line cuts, car dismantling . . . need I go on, or can you fill in the rest on your own? As with the dialogue, the story structure is presented in a semi-fresh way, but it's still exactly the same thing you've seen thousands of times. If a 12-year-old were to write this story in an English paper, it would get a C- for lack of creativity. So, then, why do we praise this movie made by grown men? The Duplass brothers could think of a much more original story, but they don't. They, just like Hollywood, don't feel like putting out the effort to think of something we haven't heard a thousand times. Or even a hundred times.I read a comment on one site that said this film was infinitely funnier than the big-budget Hollywood production Tropic Thunder. First, the falsity of that comment made me laugh harder than Baghead did. Second, based on comments like those, it seems the audience that liked Baghead simply liked it because it was low-budget. Close-minded, immature, childish thinking at its most extreme level: If it's indie, it's art; if it's Hollywood, it's crap—no exceptions. I put that statement on the same level of intelligence as I put: If I eat an apple a day, I won't get cancer; if I eat a muffin a day, I'll die of AIDS—no exception. Neither statement reflects reality.What I'm trying to get across is this. Baghead is fresher and slightly more fun than most big-budget horror productions anymore, but that doesn't mean it's good. And that certainly doesn't make it art. When a 12-year-old kid writes this, it's lack of creativity. When two pretentious indie film makers write this, it's art. Uh-huh. If that's true, I might as well take some crayons, draw a few squiggles on a piece of white paper, put on my suit and tie, and, by God, I'm an artist. Pay me. I put as much effort into that crayon drawing as the Duplass brothers put into this story. So pay me, indie art fans. Pay me. I'm an artist. I swear I'm an artist.2/10