Starring Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis. Written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. (14A) 81 min. Opens Aug 8.
Opening with the final moments of what appears to be a wretched American indie flick (title: We Are Naked) followed by an excruciating director Q&A (the first question: “What was your budget?”), Baghead will likely elicit many chuckles from any actual or would-be filmmakers in its own audience. In fact, Jay and Mark Duplass — makers of the admirably snarky 2005 sleeper hit The Puffy Chair — eagerly poke fun at their own pretensions and those of their contemporaries in their second feature, which I would call a daring exercise in meta-mumblecore if that phrase didn’t make me sound like such a wanker myself.
Among the viewers of We Are Naked are four small-time actors who justifiably believe they
can make a better movie. So they head up to a remote cabin and spend the weekend hashing out a feature that they hope will be Sundance’s next sensation.
The rising sexual tension among the two almost-couples proves to be one problem. Another is the menacing figure with a bag over his head who’s lurking in the woods.
That Baghead toggles between the diametrically opposed genres of relationship dramedy and horror flick as effectively as it does is a considerable achievement. Even if they do let matters grow slack and repetitious before this ill-fated weekend is over, the Duplass brothers succeed at bending or breaking many of the emerging clichés of their mumblecore brethren.
Plus, now we know what it would be like if Noah Baumbach remade The Blair Witch Project.