In 'They Shoot Movies, Don't They?', a documentary crew follows Tom Paulson, a young guy who gives up a development deal and dumps all his savings into his first feature film. But he runs out of funding and must try to beg borrow and steal the completion funds to make a final cut.
I happened to notice this film at the end of a shelf in my local library. Since I had never heard of it, I thought I'd check it out. When they're good, I love movies about movies, but they are rarely transcendent. It looks like a documentary, but I had my suspicions, and the tagline on the box ("A true story based on a lie") sounded perfectly cagey.
If you care to check this film out and don't want it spoiled, stop reading.
There are some interesting ideas at work here that really deserved a much better film. At one point, the despondent filmmaker asks the documentary director if he can help with funds. Now, most of us would probably believe in the concept that a documentary filmmaker should remain detached and neutral from the subject. But as the filmmaker's girlfriend points out to the documentarian, the fact that they are making the documentary about this difficult situation is affecting the situation to begin with. Are they preying upon a desperate person? It's a provocative concept that could be explored in many ways that are hinted at here.
In case you hadn't guessed from my tone, this is not a real documentary. The filmmaking team has done an admirable job keeping the look and performances natural enough to fool most people. But anyone who really gets into the business of filmmaking might be suspicious of the flashes of trade magazine articles we see with no recognizable names. It also seems odd that we don't see minute one of the film that is supposedly being completed, 'Mirage.' Not sure if that title was chosen as a hint or a joke, though.
Now, the other thing that drags this film down is the decision to set it in the world of filmmaking and dive into the reality of that world. While there are attempts to make all the people in this film relatable, the depth of immersion in the film world can be a bit off-putting. Adding to this, the story is built on the well-worn conflict of art and commerce that can be painfully obvious. The ending puts a new twist on this, but the film doesn't earn it by weaving it in to the fabric of the story.
Like I said, the team that put this film together had an amazing eye for detail and a talented group of actors putting in extra effort to manage their illusion. But in the end, making people appreciate the quality of the deception can't really drive interest to a bigger audience.
On the subject of the ethics of this...
There is a quite entertaining commentary track on the DVD where the filmmaking team describes their attempt to sell this film. Finding that most people lost interest as soon as they knew the film was fake, they adopted the mysterious answer, "It's as real as it gets." With this, they manage to get a meeting with the marketing guy who masterminded the 'Blair Witch Project' campaign. But that meeting doesn't go quite as you may expect. It's a fun listen.
Now, even though this film isn't a real documentary, I wasn't too offended by the deception. Someone smart at the library placed this in the fiction category, so that was a hint. I mention this because there was a film I previously picked up from the library called 'Hacks,' released by Film Threat on DVD.
The 'Hacks' deception was so elaborate that the film ended up in the documentary section at my library. As soon as I popped the disc in, not only did I discover that the film wasn't real, but I also discovered that it was awful. Full of weak attempts to play "fake" and rambling improvisations that thought they were funny when they were really just tedious. Some critic on the IMDB suggested that if you didn't like this movie, you probably were turned off by the humor and missed the satirical point. Honestly, I wasn't offended by anything I saw. It wasn't tasteless, it wasn't edgy, it was just bad.
Now if someone could only confirm my suspcions that several sequences of 'Trekkies' were faked.