Rediscovering American Movie

Hey, folks!  We're back with the classic 1999 documentary, American Movie.  Although, if you haven't been paying attention to the official DVDExotica Twitter/ Bluesky feed (philistine!), you may've missed that I also just did a proper DVD/ blu-ray comparison of Todd Solondz's Storytelling over on the little sister site, since that just came from Shout Factory.  Storytelling is one of the few films Mike Schank appeared in after American Movie.

American Movie is the debut of renowned American documentary filmmaker Chris Smith.  He went on to do the underrated Home Movie, the excellent mini series Bad Vegan and one of the two Fyre Fest docs.  But this tale of small, Midwestern filmmaker Mark Borchardt battling against all odds to complete his short horror flick is still the film he'll be best remembered for.  It's his magnum opus.  And I say that after only having recently revisited this film.  I've owned the DVD since it first came out, but when Sony reissued it to blu, I was hesitant to upgrade.  I had strong memories of funny scenes, like Mark hearing on the set that he might've been mispronouncing the title of his film for years.  But did I really need to return to a documentary making fun of a struggling, independent filmmaker?  Was this something I got a kick out of in the 90s, but had now outgrown?

I wasn't just relieved to learn that wasn't the case with my recent re-watch, but impressed by the fact that it was an even richer, more mature work than I would've appreciated at the time.  And maybe seeing it in HD for the first time helped a little, but really it's the substance of the film.  These guys were embedded with Mark and his family for a long time, and they wound up with a really touching, intimate portrait.  It's almost as important a work for its coverage of Uncle Bill in his last years as it is for Mark and his quirky best friend Mike.  Yes, it's funny at times.  But it runs a lot deeper than that, is affectionate rather than mocking, and it helps that the footage we see Mark capturing is at times genuinely impressive.

Sony originally released American Movie on DVD as a new release in 2000.  It was a nice little special edition, and it was pretty much all we needed and all we got until finally, in late 2022, when Sony came back to take us into the HD era.  Now we have a new blu-ray special edition with... almost all the original features, and of course a brand new transfer.

2000 Sony DVD top; 2022 Sony BD bottom.

Both discs are 1.33:1, with virtually identical framing.  The new scan scales back the overly red hues, though in the process, you could argue it washes things out a bit too much.  For instance, I'd say the first set of shots is an improvement, but in the second set, I miss the deep green of his jacket and the richer colors of the products behind Mike.  Grain is fairly patchy on the blu, which is a little underwhelming, but compared to the smudged compression artifacts on the DVD, it's a big step forward.

The DVD and blu both have the original mono audio in 2.0 with optional English subtitles, but the BD  bumps it up to lossless DTS-HD.  The DVD also has Spanish subs.

2000 Sony DVD top; 2022 Sony BD bottom.

Most of the extras from the DVD were carried over to the blu-ray.  That includes a great audio commentary by the documentary filmmakers Chris Smith & Sarah Price, and the two filmmakers depicted in the documentary, Mark Borchardt & Mike Schank.  And there's a whole host of deleted scenes, over a half hour's worth, that are about as good as the scenes in the final cut.  Curiously they're non-anamorphic widescreen at 1.54:1 on the DVD and 1.74:1 on the blu.  I'm pretty sure the BD is correct and the DVD is vertically stretched.  They're also interlaced on the DVD, which the BD corrects.  Regardless, any fan of the film should definitely check these out in whichever format they've got them, because they're a great addendum to the feature.  There's also the theatrical trailer.

Coven

The DVD also had a couple bonus trailers, which were left off at no great loss.  But considerably more disappointing is the fact that the DVD had, and the blu-ray has dropped, Bprchardt's entire short film Coven, about a diabolical support group, which was completed in the doc.  When I got the DVD, I remember thinking I didn't really need to see the whole Coven, American Movie was its own movie and all I was there for.  But twenty-four years later, I really wanted to watch Coven after the doc.  Good thing I still have the DVD.  Presented in 1.32:1, it pretty much looks just like its presented in American Movie (you can compare it to the shot from the doc posted earlier) except with very milky, elevated blacks.  I was hoping they might fix that on the blu, but instead they just chucked the whole thing.

I presume they didn't want to get into the hassle and expense of re-licensing it, which is understandable, but it's still a bummer and a reason to hang onto your DVD.  But that said, it's not a reason not to double-dip.  American Movie is a great film and deserves to be seen in HD even if it doesn't have all the bonus features one would like.