Obesity surrounds us all. It’s threatening to crush us as we speak. Heart attacks are your worst enemy. Every mom knows this: Those same tasty treats that provide the buds on your tongue unspeakable pleasures also possess enough fortified sugar and mystery ingredients to seduce a rhino into a candy-coated coma. That being said, it shouldn’t be hard to grasp the importance behind the healthy concept of “brown-bagging it.”
However, there are two strategies one may employ when practicing this. Either adhere to the purity of the “brown bag,” carefully choosing Styrofoam reminiscent health food, or honor the traditions of the Mars Corporation by dumping out the contents in favor of what resides in the vending machines. Directing, writing and producing team the Duplass brothers clearly embrace the latter technique. In their new film “Baghead” they don’t just dump that bag out…they defiantly put it on their head! Crazy!
Hot off the modest success and hype surrounding their 2005 film, “The Puffy Chair,” it’s obvious the Duplass brothers are eager to distinguish themselves as innovators. Even with an offer from a major studio to produce “Baghead” within the system, the Bros. Duplass made like Fleetwood Mac and went their own way. Shot over the course of three weeks on an HD camera, the film embraces “no frills” tactics that by now have become something of indie cinema clichés. But even though “Baghead” may be a film that overtly strives for credibility based on the technique of “shunning” the mainstream, it’s no worse because of it.
With a cast of unknown actors and camera work that at times resembles the unbridled Parkinson’s disease cinematography of “The Blair Witch Project,” the Duplass’s latest is no doubt a stripped-down affair. However, while other films may use such style to add a sense of gritty realism or increase their final product’s marketability to the “art cinema” crowd, “Baghead” is just having a laugh. Sure these choices add to the sense of realism and aim for a niche, but the Duplass brothers are interested in more than just what their bag can hold.
These boys want to take on Hollywood, and they do just that. By championing one of the town’s least respected segments, desperate actors, “Baghead” tells this unsung population’s story with both humor and sincerity. After seeing a film that itself is stereotypic of “indie cinema,” four actor friends decide to hit the mountains for a weekend to try their hands at this movie thing. With little more than the premise that “if this guy can do it – we can” the group sets off for sidekick-wingman Chad’s (Steve Zissis) cabin in the woods.
Alcohol and hormones collide as the friends attempt to mix business discretely with pleasure in a classic game of “Sleeping With Your Best Friends.” The use of improvisation and first takes without rehearsal lends itself to some truly awkward moments between the group and for the movie in general. But when they get it right, they’re never more palpable. Scenes such as when Chad melodramatically slaps best friend Matt (Ross Partridge) because he may or may not have slept with Michelle (Greta Gerwig) are as endearing as they are real.
In another film there might’ve been more plot. But The Duplass brothers would rather spend time on character development by running through the woods at night. And then of course the “prankster” loses the maps on purpose and xenophobic witches lead them into a dank basement to eat their souls. Which actually might’ve broadened their demographic.
“Baghead” stacks up to be an interesting commentary on the world the Duplass’ used to inhabit. But is there really any more to it? While unknown actors, raw aesthetics and the chosen subject matter are intriguing, they aren’t necessarily groundbreaking. It’s not even enough to fill most of an 80-minute film. It’s a commentary on Hollywood; it’s a relationship to indie cinema and the actors are just slobbering for their slice of “fame pie” (a favorite at the Brown Derby, I’m told). I get it. You will too. And while “Baghead” may not be the transcendent, life-altering art often expected out of indies, it’s not a bad snack.
