LIVING IN OBLIVION (1995)
Despite one of the cheesiest posters in cinema history (which, come to think of it, may itself be some kind of meta parody of the habitual cheesiness of zero-budget indiewood marketing campaigns), writer/director Tom DiCillo’s Living in Oblivion more than earns its place on this list through its flawless depiction of the cast and crew of every single dentist-financed independent film of the ‘90s, from the taciturn sound guy in the hipster glasses (“Speeeed”) and the creepy, addled production assistant to the catty make-up girl and, yes, the ubiquitous dream sequence dwarf (played with simmering, hilarious contempt by Peter Dinklage in a breakthrough performance). The project, allegedly inspired by DiCillo’s enervating experience directing Brad Pitt in the indie misfire Johnny Suede, is a hilarious cautionary tale starring Steve Buscemi as a harried director afraid to admit his passion project might just be a colossal waste of time and money, James Le Gros as an insanely arrogant would-be movie star and Catherine Keener as an insecure actress whose slow disintegration over the course of multiple takes of an emotional scene is like a graduate course in on-camera acting.
DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY (1967)
Jim McBride's debut feature stars L. M. Kit Carson as a young aspiring filmmaker who begins compulsively shooting a documentary record of his life, a life that soon disappears under the weight of all that celluloid. A special kind of modern horror comedy, sort of like watching a mirror eat the world it's supposed to be reflecting. The inevitable remake, David Holzman's Blog, is still out there waiting to be made.
BAADASSSSS! (2003)
Mario Van Peebles makes some kind of history by playing his own father, Melvin, in the stirring tale of how dad managed to somehow pull together the pioneering X-rated art-blaxsploitation independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Wearing a '70s 'stache and chomping on his father's trademark stogie, Van Peebles actually gives a more exciting performance than he'd ever managed before (and a more appealing one than his dad had ever managed) while mining the chaos of no-budget filmmaking for some ripe comedy. (He also makes time to document the time that dad, having enlisted young Mario to appear in the film, ordered someone to shave ringworm scars in the sensitive lad's head.) Plus: Rainn Wilson's worst hair day ever! Adam West declares himself lustful! And Seinfeld's Uncle Leo in stereo!
DEMON LOVER DIARY (1980)
This lost classic (never officially released on home video in any form) is American Movie's evil twin. In 1975, MIT grad student and cinematographer Jeff Kreins agreed to shoot the horror flick Demon Lover for a pair of Midwestern factory workers looking to make a splash in the film world. (Financing for the film came in the form of insurance payments when one of the would-be Cravens cut off his finger on the job.) One of Kreins' conditions in agreeing to take on this task was that he be able to bring along his gal pal Joel DeMott so that she could film a cinema verite documentary on the making of Demon Lover. She couldn't have known at the time that she would be chronicling a harrowing descent into madness that literally ends with Kreins and DeMott fleeing in panic while gunshots are fired. The two would-be filmmakers at the documentary's center are bizarro dopplegangers of American Movie's Borchardt and Schank, but proving once again that life is stranger than fiction, co-director Donald G. Jackson went on to have a long if not distinguished directorial career, with credits including Lingerie Kickboxer and Hell Comes to Frogtown.
Click Here for Part One, Part Two, Part Three & Part Five
Contributors: Andrew Osborne, Phil Nugent, Scott Von Doviak
