Some of the best movies I missed at SXSW09 (which I have since seen) are playing HotDocs 2009 in Toronto this weekend, and everyone attending should make time for them all. I'll be adding a couple others later on. For those attending, I recommend using BSide's festival schedule tool that I used at SXSW. It's a life-saver.
Best Worst Movie has been raved about from here to kingdom come by this point, but as these docs continue their life on the festival circuit, they need as much exposure as possible. The child star of Troll 2, a movie that was neither an actual sequel nor very good, picked up a camera all these years later to document the rabid cult following of IMdB's lowest-rated movie of all time. Michael Paul Stephenson's movie does not require you to already be a huge fan of Troll 2, and that's why it works so well.
marquee from one of many revival screenings In fact, even to those who detest watching movies like Troll 2, Best Worst Movie is quite satisfying as an anthropological study of cult films: the making of them, the maturation of the cult, and the wake left by the movie. Folks who get soundbitten range from Alamo Drafthouse programmers to critic Scott Weinberg, and fans across the world. They also check back in with every notable member of the cast they could find, and one in particular kinda creeped me out.
practical effects at their best worst
The Italian director and production team responsible for the wretched shit of a script they had and movie they came up with are so deadly serious about their craft, it reminds me of docs like General Idi Amin Dada (watch free this month in the US here), where the great transgressor sees himself as the great philanthropist. To see such joy and relative fame come to people like George Hardy and at once embarrass them just as they are exalted is hilarious, fascinating, and tragic all at once.
Rare for a doc, this one is universally appealing and extremely commercially viable. Someone will pick this up and make tens of millions on home video with it. People won't illegally download it out of respect, and they'll gift it to friends. Fans of Troll 2 will have to have it, and people who love movies and aren't in on the joke yet will have it introduced to them by this precision-cut documentary. This is a "holy fucking shit, let me go grab it off the shelf and show it to you" documentary.
Catch it tonight at 845pm, Saturday at 1145pm (at the Bloor), and 2pm Sunday.