i almost missed watching "scumrock" by jon moritsugu in theatres! it only has a 1 week run at laemmle fairfax. i didn't realize that today was the last night and that was at a little after 9pm. the last showing of the evening was at 10pm. immediately twiddle thumbs and i rushed down the freeways to catch the 10pm showing. i was going about 80mph the whole way there, which was like me as a teenager but i haven't gone that fast since i've moved here. needless to say, i reached the theatre with time to spare.

"scumrock" was inspiritional to new/young/low budget filmmakers, but in a bad way. bad because the film was bad. you sit there thinking that you could make a better film. you sit there thinking that you could've made 10x more films of that quality than moritsugu has made. however, there is another side to it. the aspects that made the film bad were intentially so in my opinion.

first, let me explain how it is inspirational. "scumrock" is a true piece of gorilla filmmaking. it completely looks and feels like some kid took their dad's old video camera and got all their friends together over a couple of weekends. there are scenes of people waking down the street but the camera doesn't really show their faces. the dialogue is dubbed in later and it totally sounds that way. the camera movement is shakey and unfocused at times. there is extreme contrast issues with sunlight--everything just looks washed out. it looks like the entire film is comprised of the bad footage one would have edited out--even left out of the deleted scenes bonus footage on the dvd release! all these elements just make you want to get off your ass and do the same. it makes you think, 'if this film is being shown in theatres, i definitely can make a film that will be shown at festivals.'

now, the reason why i thought these bad elements were intentional. i took this film as a self-parody/critique of moritusgu, guerilla/underground filmmaking, and cinema intelligentsia. moritsugu makes an appearance in the film as an idiot-pig filmmaker who doesn't deserve the cult of reverence that surrounds him. the main guy is miles, a 28-year old filmmaker who reeks of artsy fartsy incompetence--he cannot get his film done because his crew does not understand his metamorphic vision and nothing is good enough for him. miles is coordinating the film with a female friend, much like moritsugu and his wife. they can't coordinate the crew/cast/locations because none are available at the same times. when things go wrong, it's really an invitation for all young filmmakers to laugh and sigh along. i took the poor quality of dialogue, camera placement, lighting, and so forth as emphasizing elements of the self-parody/critique of guerilla/underground filmmaking.

hilarious 'just like life' scene: when miles freaks out because drew is listening to his precious collectable 7"s and not treating them with the care that miles thinks they should be handled. he has them all catalogued and copied onto cassette tape. he tells drew that he should never listen to the vinyl version, rather listen to the cassette copy. twiddle thumbs and i were cracking up because miles is as anal about his record collection as i am.

cool 'artsy fartsy' scene: when moritsugu's filmmaker character is being introduced at a lecture series by san francisco cinema hero craig baldwin, who plays a professor.

trippy 'i sorta know that person' scene: reading the credits for the audience members during the lecture series scene, i recognized the name of somebody who used to work at the ucsc chemistry department before i did.

oh yes, once again jon's wife, amy davis, is the star. james duval has a small part as drew, the roommate of miles the filmmaker. he's credited as "drew" though.