Chris Smith, Todd Solondz and the question of intent.

2008-09-04 21:00:02

Chris Smith's feature "The Pool" opened in New York yesterday, and today the Onion AV Club's Scott Tobias takes on his 1999 documentary "American Movie" as part of his "New Cult Canon" series, noting that "the main knock against the movie is that Smith is condescending to his subjects and carting them out exclusively so we can laugh at their ineptitude... At the risk of passing the blame, I'd say that any condescension brought to American Movie comes mostly from the viewer, not the filmmakers." I'd agree that Smith doesn't seem to have made the film with mockery of his subjects in mind, but what made "American Movie" so worm its way into my brain is that the film's a constant and uncomfortable reminder of one's participation in its subject-filmmaker-audience set-up. Smith's intentions don't matter once the film is finished and put into the world -- if mockery is what...

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