SXSW 2008 - BAGHEAD review
Acknowledged as the birthplace of “mumblecore” (a talky, visually loose form of American indie primarily focused on meandering 20-somethings), it’s only fitting that SXSW should bear witness to the creative evolution of two of the format’s pioneers, writer / director brothers Jay and Mark Duplass. Their latest collaboration Baghead is many things, but it should be said up front a horror film isn’t one of them - despite a considerable amount of pre-release speculation pegging it as such (resisting the urge to stamp “mumblehorror” atop this review is much less difficult for yours truly when keeping that thought at my mind’s forefront). Already acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, Baghead plays with form in humorous and inventive fashion, features strong performances throughout, and yes – even includes a clutch of genuine jump scares.
Baghead, like the recently-reviewed SXSW offering Shuttle, is difficult to ruminate on in great detail without diminishing the film’s impact. It should be said it doesn’t turn on some sort of Shyamalan twist-o-rama axis, but does manipulate perception and turn the tables on viewers more than once and its machinations shouldn’t be spoiled.
After catching a screening of a ludicrous ultra-low-budget short at an underground film festival, four out-of-work actor friends decide to hole up in a cabin and bang out a screenplay that’ll turn their stalled careers around. The retreat quickly devolves into a booze-soaked series of sexual mind games but comes crashing to halt when one of them claims to have seen someone prowling the property in a menacing get-up highlighted by a raggedy sack covering their head. The group has fun with each other over the tension generated but soon finds themselves wondering if there really is someone or something out there in the woods...
The film has more than a few laughs at the expense of the genre, an angle which supplies Baghead with a number of its funnier moments, but there’s a surprising amount of skill evident in the ways the Duplass brothers stage their scare sequences. Considering their previous efforts, these flights of spooky fancy represent a pleasant surprise and speak to the afore-mentioned creative growth on display during the film. Not to suggest the brothers should sign up to helm the next Saw installment (though it would class that joint up more than a little) – but they clearly know how to goose an audience. Better, in fact, than a lot of filmmakers working in straight-ahead scare pictures these days. The grafting of mumblecore aesthetic onto the story’s genre elements reps an ingenious fusion, resulting in a few lighting-in-a-bottle moments we’re likely to see curbed in the next DTV horror salvo launched by Lions Gate and the like.
Baghead is primarily focused on the relationships brewing between its four characters, and the actors (Ross Partridge, Steve Zissi, Elise Muler, and Greta Gerwig) all turn in fine work. Zissi stands out as the cherubic, lovelorn Chad. When he finally voices his pent-up feelings to longtime platonic friend Michelle, there’s real catharsis for the audience.
The closest cinematic cousin Baghead may have is the bizarre Swedish Dogma-horror hybrid Det Okända (which doesn’t work nearly as well in blending disparate styles). The fact that there’s not much of a frame of reference is a good thing – and again points to growth in the mumblecore ranks. I don't hold the level of contempt for the sub-genre seen in the oddly personal tirade by distinguished critic Amy Taubin in a recent issue of "Film Comment," but I do think it’s fair to say the sub-genre was beginning to walk in circles the same way its characters tended to. Baghead, then, represents an exciting break, the sort done with such conviction one can feel confident the Duplass brothers will continue expanding and exploring their work going forward in the wake of its deserved success.
