Guerrilla Korner
HOLLYWOOD Outsider's art-bear movie critic, Edgar Allan Balzac, tackles movies from the independent scene. We are talking real indie films, not faux Miramax/Disney "independent" films. You'll have to drag your lazy ass down to your local film-fest to check out these monster flicks.
Sweets (2002)
director: marq morrison & ren morrison
cast: graham elwood, paul goebel, rus blackwell, tara chocol, christy moore, big dave, patricia clay, leslie peiken, gary Norris, brice stephens, scott meinke, john shaw, michael alexander douglas, paul kolyk, shawn rolando
Filmmakers Marq and Ren Morrison (are those real names?) have self-distributed Sweets; a little mock-u-mentary they produced about two friends trying to break into the carney-esque world of "pro" wrestling. Paul Goebel, the TV Geek on Comedy Central's Beat the Geeks, is Sweets, a large, out-of-shape slacker who is being railroaded into a wrestling career by his long-time buddy, "Golden" Graham (Graham Elwood). Standing in their way is the sleazy owner of Global Professional Wrestling©, Nate Mathews (Rus Blackwell). With This is Spinal Tap as the model, Sweets tries to do to wrestling what Tap did to rock & roll. Nothing is more difficult than parodying something that is a farce to begin with—like pro wrestling. It's a one-note flick, it's a decent note, but it goes on a bit long.
Graham
and Paul are excellent as the odd-couple friends. Graham has a mullet that looks
like it was lifted right off of a poodle, and has a low-rent, Type-A personality
to boot. He wears a different candy-colored sweat suit in almost every scene.
In contrast, Paul is a large, slobby everyman with choppy sideburns and a DA.
He seems most contented when sipping exotic drinks while lounging in his suburban
Florida backyard. Their differing personalities are on full display when they
discuss their mothers. As it turns out, their moms (Patricia Clay & Leslie
Peiken—both mature ladies in their 50's) have started living together and
are in love. They are also committed nudists. This is so distressing to Graham
that he can barely talk about it. Typically, Paul just accepts their mom's relationship
and moves on. Graham and Paul share a house too, and spend each day trying to
get Paul's wrestling career off the ground. Paul's training seems to consist
mostly of being hit by Graham with a bamboo stick. When not beating Paul, Graham
hunkers down in his office and tries to persuade Nate (owner of the GPW©)
to give Paul a shot in the ring. There is also a nice sub-plot involving Graham's
trailer-park girlfriend, Sheila (Tara Chocol). Sheila is camera shy when she
shouldn't be and not camera shy when she should be. All in all, the cast is
great.
The
story is shot on video in a competent but fairly unimaginative way. Sometimes
"Marq" and "Ren" forget their documentary aesthetic and
lapse into straight up fiction-style coverage. Part of the fun of the mock-u-mentary
genre is how closely the documentary style is mimicked. If you've seen the Cops
episode of the X-files then you know what I'm talking about. The more
closely the source material is copied the better. However, the biggest problem
has to do with the concept. The story just isn't able to maintain interest over
the course of an hour and a half. That aside, this is a decent effort by all
involved, especially the cast.
There are "bonus movies" on the DVD. Besides Sweets there are three extra short films; Dammit Jim, I'm Only a Documentary!; Takin' it to the Mat; The BVM. Dammit Jim is part documentary, part mock-u-mentary about the people who dress up as their favorite Star Trek personalities and attend Star Trek conventions. Paul Goebel and Graham Elwood make an appearance as two obsessive fan-club presidents. Takin' it to the Mat is a lowball documentary about the local wrestling scene in Florida. The BVM is a documentary about pilgrims frequenting a farm where the Virgin Mary has been appearing. By far, BVM is the most interesting and disturbing. Especially interesting are the people taking pictures of the sky then pointing out the Virgin Mary's features in cloud formations. People see what they want to see. All the photos looked like breasts and vaginas to me.— Edgar Allan Balzac
$7.04
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© 2003 Hollywood Outsider™