I always have a hard time calling things ‘mockumentaries’. The word ‘mock’ catches me. In my head, I hear it as if it’s mocking a subject or style. Not imitating it but making fun of it. Pseudo-documentary feels better but is a lot of goop in the mouth and it doesn’t sound better. I shall, despite CLEARLY being the smartest person on the planet, defer to how the filmmaker describes, this, as a mockumentary, and darn it, it fits.
IT FITS, I SAY!
So, anyway, on with the review.
REMI MILLIGAN is a documentary about a filmmaker who is legendary more for his sudden disappearance than his work as a director, a subject most of the subjects that speak are clearly at odds with. Milligan was a filmmaker who just missed two revolutions in modern film – the ability to promote your work via YouTube and similar services and the advent of streaming. He was a director who made strange, passionate films that would have been so far outside the norm that he would have become famous from that fact alone. A music set in Guantanamo? A partially stop-motion film about anthropomorphic fruit? A movie about a killer pencil? Those are just some of what Milligan was doing and would have made him infamous, if not famous. Remi was driven by a need to tell stories and to keep expanding his skillset but in that, he could alienate some of his cast and crew, who never quite understood what he was trying to do. Here, we have a sad examination of talent that almost broke through. REMI MILLIGAN is the story of a filmmaker who didn’t get to see the impact his work had on its fans or to see a day when he may have been able to find more funding and support for the stories he wanted to tell.
Director Sam Lodato has absolutely nailed what makes a mockumentary work, and that is believability. The ‘talking head’ portions of the film have very good acting and was shot exactly like a standard documentary is. Better than that though he shot the footage we see of Remi’s films, which each have their look, feel, and style.
I was sent REMI by director Lodato asking if I’d take a look at it, probably because I review so many found footage/mockumentary movies. I wasn’t sure what to expect but man, this deserves distribution. It’s well made, it’s well acted, and it’s got an engaging story. I kept expecting a big twist but that’s just because I have become trained to look for them. This is interested in the filmmaker and his legacy, not on any gotcha moments that might undermine the story that’s been established.
This is a movie making the festival rounds and it’s absolutely worth a look. It is funny, sad, and could the story of any number of filmmakers or creatives that had the chops but not that breakthrough moment that got them the spotlight, even for a moment.
4 out of 5
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