29 January 2012

Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson, 2009)

7.5/10
It seems like what most legendary bad movies have in common is the bloodymindedness of someone making the thing, convinced that what they're doing is genuine art. Plan 9 has Ed Wood, Battlefield Earth has John Travolta, The Room has Tommy Wiseau, and the subject of this documentary, Troll 2, has Claudio Fragasso. Though he's not the focus of the film (that would be George Hardy, who played the father), he's easily the most fascinating - utterly convinced that the recent surge in "so bad it's good" attention paid to Troll 2 is actually American audiences finally coming around to understand his "ahead of its time" masterpiece. In fact, Troll 2 has a lot of fascinating figures attached to it that make it special, and indeed worthy of a documentary - its acting and production crew a strange mix of people from those who really believe in the artistry of the work, to ones that can accept it as a terrible movie and laugh along with audiences, to others that seem slightly embarassed but are willing to go along for the ride. George Hardy seems to encompass almost all these reactions simultaneously, and makes for a good focal point. As a documentary it's mostly celebratory stuff for pre-existing fans of Troll 2, but with some nice interesting dashes of the strange personalities that went into making the thing.

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