Change Your Image
maystie
Reviews
It Came from Kuchar (2009)
Highly entertaining
I went in to this movie at the SXSW festival having never heard of the Kuchar brothers; I just thought the description sounded intriguing. Boy, am I glad I took a chance on it; of all the films I saw during the festival, this was one of my favorites. It's a hilarious and sometimes poignant look at the world of underground filmmakers and identical (or maybe not) twins, George and Mike Kuchar.
These guys have made tons of no-budget films since the 50s, including such classics as The Naked and the Nude, Lust for Ecstasy, Hold Me While I'm Naked, The Devil's Cleavage...and they are fascinating characters to boot. After looking at clips from their movies, it's easy to see that the Kuchar films heavily influenced John Waters' early works.
I hope this documentary gets a distribution deal; it definitely deserves to be seen. If it plays on IFC or Sundance channel, do yourself a favor and check it out.
A Necessary Death (2008)
Excellent film, horrible marketing premise
I saw this movie at the SXSW film festival, and I found it to be a fascinating, nuanced examination of many interesting issues: the relationship between filmmaker and subject, the ethics of suicide, and much more...however, one thing about this film really makes me angry: It is essentially being marketed as a documentary, a la "Blair Witch Project", but it is in fact a work of fiction. This movie is good enough to stand on its own, but I guess for publicity purposes, they are trying to fool people into going to this movie thinking it is real--which cheapens the movie significantly.
I would recommend the film, but I hope that people realize going in that it is not a documentary--it is emotionally powerful enough without resorting to such cheap shock tactics.