Related
A self-promoting, off-beat quasi-documentary that people in the lower ranks of the Hollywood movie machine will appreciate more than most of us.
I thought that with all the press surrounding Michael Moore and his a la mode film Sicko , it might be fun to review a ( semi-)documentaryaboutMichael Moore . Well , at leastpartiallyabout him .
First off , you need to know that despite the promotional material and the title , Michael & Meis not really about Michael Moore , whop or otherwise - so for both Moore haters and defender there ’s not really much to get dead set out of human body over with this flick .
Having seen the film , I found that more than a routine misleading . Sure , the latter part of the film does brood the filmmaker ’s attempts to get through to Moore , and as far as that goes it is quite an wry counterpoint to Moore ’s documentaryRoger & Me , in which he was never able to get a cargo deck of Roger Smith , head of General Motors at the clock time .
Really , this is an autobiographical explanation of the lifelong attempts of comedian(?)Willard Morganto " hit it big " in Hollywood . Never hear of him ? Me neither , and it seems to me this videodisk is yet another attempt to gain the attention of someone ( or anyone ) in the film business in L.A.
It start up out seeming like a full-strength docudrama , quickly cover Willard ’s younger days and forays into the world of comedy . He comes to the conclusion that he wants to be a filmmaker , and it seems like many of the Word of God out there on the topic commend finding a wise man . This is where the film take off to cut off with the debut of a number of characters ( the majority of which are Morgan himself in costume and make-up ) that he meets one by one , trying to find someone to be the perfect wise man .
During the process we see that he ’s done what probably a lot of actors and fledgling filmmaker have done : work in and produced stuff that ’s basically garbage . He does get a momentary second of almost fame when his light filmJimmy ’s Reality(very forgetful , at one min and ten minute farseeing ) wins the prize for good forgetful film at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994 . unluckily he is not able to double up that win into anything else at all , despite the fact that it is shown at a few other pic festival . Morgan ends up making a 10 minute documentary about his experience at Sundance calledFestival Feverand starts to pitch it around , with no winner .
However one day he meet a call from the office of Michael Moore , state that Moore desire to see the short film . Morgan is of course very happy to see this and decides he ’s found his mentor - a film producer who start at the bottom and " stands up for the footling cat . " He sends in the picture show , waits a few week , grant Moore ’s power a call and no news . This is where we begin the " stalkumentary " phase of the film , where Morgan tries harder and more frequently to get in touch with Moore .
This is where the collimate toRoger & Mekick in , and for the most part it ’s quite interesting . Moore is at first gracious , but as Willard continues to get non - committal replies ( whoever called on behalf of Moore apparently never mention it to him ) , he tries to get face sentence with Moore more and more often , to the stage where the bighearted fella considers Willard a stalker who " needs to get some help . "
Although a muckle of it struck me as self - soft , I could definitely see the insider humour here and the picture elicited more than a few chuckles from me . In particular the " Filmaholics Anonymous " scenery , where a phone number of people stand up to talk about their never - ending quest to get into filmmaking despite the problem it ’s make in their lives - I find to be both odd and a bit disturbing at the same time . Also pitiful ( to me ) was when he highlighted an older fellow namedDennis Woodruff , who despite having been in Hollywood for 20 year keep drives the street promoting himself in outrageously decorated cable car hop to still get that big break .
The videodisk includes four extras , three of which can be skipped IMHO , but you may require to check out theFestival Feverdocumentary , which is really kind of interesting .
Not a rouse recommendation , but if you ’re one of those sept who ’ve moved to L.A. and have been struggling to let out into the picture show game , I believe you ’ll appreciate this one as well as the guy who created it .
For more about the motion-picture show go to MeAndMichaelMovie.com
