Richard Shepard, the director of the dark comedies “Dom Hemingway” and “The Matador,” is a lifelong cinephile with a voracious urge for food for motion pictures.
“Film Geek,” a feature-length video essay composed essentially of pictures of flicks that Shepard noticed rising up within the Nineteen Seventies in Fresh York Town, delves deep into his obsession. In a voice-over, he recounts his formative years, when he was once “addicted to movies, to watching them, to making them.” He’s progressive, and the film aspires to form that zeal infectious.
I recognize Shepard’s affection: I additionally grew up loving motion pictures, and I discovered his wistful memories of being awed by means of “Jaws” and “Star Wars” relatable. However Shepard’s degree of self-regard will also be stultifying. For mins at a life, he merely rattles off the titles of numerous motion pictures that he noticed as a kid. I recognize that optic “Rocky” made a robust affect on him. I didn’t want to know that he misplaced his virginity within the rental development the place John G. Avildsen, the director of “Rocky,” as soon as lived.
“Film Geek” has been in comparison to Thom Andersen’s stunning documentary from 2003, “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” and at the degree of montage, they percentage a superficial resemblance: “Film Geek,” like Andersen’s essay movie, is brisk and neatly edited.
However “Los Angeles Plays Itself” could also be a considerate and incisive paintings of movie complaint, while Shepard describes motion pictures in clichés, when he describes motion pictures in any respect. Extra regularly he’s speaking about himself, an issue of passion to a long way fewer audience.
Movie Geek
No longer rated. Working life: 1 generation 35 mins. In theaters.
