SXSW 2010: AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE Review

There are so many books, articles, and documentaries available on the subject of American exploitation cinema that new revelations are increasingly scarce and unlikely. A new documentary called American Grindhouse from director Elijiah Drenner is an example of the difficulty in uncovering anything new in this area.

Although the subject is briefly discussed, American Grindhouse isn't about grindhouse theaters. It is about exploitation films. To this end, the film is split into multiple chapters that cover a wide array of exploitation sub-genres, including film noir, teen beach party films, nudie cuties, roughies, gore, bikers, porn, women in prison, nazi exploitation, and blaxploitation.

Robert Forster handles the narration. 21 interviewees are featured with a set of core interviewees like Joe Dante, Alison Anders, John Landis, and film noir expert Eddie Mueller garnering extended screen time. Interviews with prominent figures, including H.G. Lewis, Larry Cohen, Jack Hill, and Lewis Teague. Rare interviews with people like Judy Brown, Don Edmonds, and Jonathan Kaplan (director of Truck Turner) add a bit novelty to the mix of familiar faces.

The doc flies by with quick cutting between talking heads and hundreds of clips from trailers, features, public domain documentaries, and educational films. A century of film history is a lot of territory to cover in an 82 minute documentary. Thus, instead of focusing on a few things in detail, American Grindhouse ends up covering a lot of areas in a superficial way. The entirety of blaxploitation is covered in around 5 minutes. Interestingly, almost as much time is dedicated to Last House in the Left.

The core issue with American Grindhouse isn't depth, but freshness. American exploitation movies are a well-worn subject, and beyond some cool interviews, there just isn't a lot of new information. As such, neophytes will find this to be a good introduction. Those familiar with the subject will find the American Grindhouse to be a nice trip down memory lane.