Well That's Cool

Once, down at the Pub, I was introduced to a group of film students because, with good intentions but limited understanding, people see me and think, “here are some film people, you should talk to them!”  Quite quickly I ran into my expected issue in these situations, “I actually make films, mainly documentary.”

Judge me as you will – I don’t like documentary.  I like narrative, I like thematic struggle and development and what have you, I’ve learned about the docu form, I find it interesting, but I don’t want to sit and watch something that runs more than thirty minutes.  Not wanting to annihilate the attempt at small talk, I admitted that I didn’t watch documentaries much but mentioned a few I greatly enjoyed (I know The Kid Stays in the Picture was one, can’t remember what else).  His response?  A cold hearted, “Oh, yeah, those are very cinematic.”  My response?  “Go suck down another overpriced beer, you pretentious bleep.”(editors note these people are also known as pretentious asshats)

Okay, not really.  I blow at confrontation, so really it was just an awkward grin, let him talk a while, then slipped away which offered no protest because, well, I was just an ignorant movie watcher, not to be taken seriously by these high brow production types.

Here’s the point of this wayward story: how do you judge, critique, analyze (whatever you want to dub it), a film that is part of a genre you normally despise?  Or, in a milder sense, find pretty boring.  Answer: very delicately, trying to balance as much open-mindedness as you can handle without letting your brain fall out, and, in my case, searching for the “cinematic” (you, buddy, can bite me).

I went to the screening of Darius Goes West with average timidity.  Didn’t know anything about it beyond what the poster looked like and that our department was sponsoring it, which I find serves me best for non-fiction films.  Meeting the director lowered my already nonexistent hopes.  He was a good friend of the guy who was the subject of the film.  He and his buddies had never made a film before.  Never taken a class.  Trial and error, raising money in the community, and so on.

Without sounding too sappy, I say: imagine my shock.  Aside from staying engaged in the story, I wanted to grab the director/editor afterward and shout, “holy crap man, this is what you do without training?!  Screw this raising money for medical research thing (okay, not really, it’s good work, this was just initial passionate response) and make more movies (I’ve, uh, got several script outlines at home if you’re looking for inspiration).”  Don’t get me wrong, this was no work of explicit technical genius, but it did clearly show someone who, despite not having formal training or experience, did have a keen eye for what he was doing.  Marveling at that helped the viewing.  Bolstering this technical aspect was the fact that the movie didn’t pity its subject (a young man with muscular dystrophy on a road trip across the nation with the hope to get his wheel chair pimped by MTV). More importantly, they makers didn’t draw attention to this lack of pity as so so so many films about medical issues do.  I.e., look at us, we see him as simply a regular person, aren’t we wonderful?  No, not at all.  There were a few scenes speaking with researchers, disability advocates, and families who have experienced the disease, but this acted merely as greater conditional context.  The main focus remains a fellow and his crew motoring across the nation, and that’s plenty.

Only poor point: loose the sappy keyboard tracks.  But really, that’s just a small element of beginner’s-schmuck. (editors note. This movie really touched us here at wellthatscool.com and if you’d like to borrow a copy just email us at wellthatscool(at)gmail . we have several copies)

—Dosty Glory

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