Review: Baghead (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

BAGHEAD
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

BAGHEAD isn't a horror movie.  And, although it may well be marketed as 
something of a BLAIR WITCH spoof, it really isn't that either.

BAGHEAD, jointly written and directed by the Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, 
is a comedic drama about relationships.  An indie film that's happiest when 
it takes itself least seriously, BAGHEAD follows four young would-be actors, 
Matt (Ross Partridge), Michelle (Greta Gerwig), Chad (Steve Zissis) and 
Catherine (Elise Muller).  The closest these four characters have ever 
gotten to stardom is as extras.  We follow them one inebriated weekend, as 
they head off to a remote cabin deep in the woods, where they hope to write 
a movie script for themselves in just two days.

Before the two couples head off for the weekend, we meet them at the L.A. 
Underground Film Festival, where they are part of a small audience seeing 
the world premiere of WE ARE NAKED.  This black and white film was shot for 
under a thousand dollars by Jett Garner, who plays himself.  The film 
festival host says glowing, heavily clichéd things about this obviously 
awful movie.

After seeing WE ARE NAKED, Matt convinces Michelle, Chad and Catherine that 
the four of them could come up with a script too.  Actually, only Matt 
appears dedicated to the task.  Chad's main interest is to work a romantic 
angle into the plot, so that he can hook up with Michelle, who treats him 
more like a brother than a potential lover.  And Michelle's main interest is 
getting Matt to come to her bed.  They are all reasonably good looking, 
especially Michelle who looks like a young Meg Ryan, but Chad is filled with 
self-doubts because of his rapidly receding hairline.

After pondering various genres and storylines, as they down many shots of 
tequila, nothing seems to be working.  Finally Matt hits on the idea of a 
horror movie about a killer with a bag over his head who attacks two young 
couples staying at a remote cabin in the woods.  Of course, this would 
transform their four-person movie idea into one that calls for a five member 
cast.  Or would it?

You can probably construct the rest of the movie in your head, and you'd 
probably guess most of it correctly, but that doesn't make any difference. 
The beauty of BAGHEAD, a surprisingly sweet little movie, is that it doesn't 
have a pretentious bone in its body.  The four lead actors are uniformly 
likable, so the thinness of the production never detracts from our 
enjoyment.

You don't really care how it ends or even what happens along the way.  You 
just enjoy hanging out with these people for a while.  Still, the movie does 
make its 84 minutes feel a bit long, so the film does have its limits.

BAGHEAD runs 1:24.  It is rated R for "language, some sexual content and 
nudity" and would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens in limited release in the United States on Friday, August 1, 
2008.  In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the 
Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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