Movie Review: Lost in La Macha

I have to tell you a wee secret.

One of my top ten all time movies is Adventures of Baron Munchausen. It was a stinkie piece of work, but I loved it. It had grandeur and a theme I could relate to. I became a vicious watcher of the director's work, Terry Gilliam (he's the only American involved with the ever quotable Monty Python comedy troupe from Britain), and his brand of imagery. I loved Time Bandits and really thought the 12 Monkeys had one of the key performances of Brad Pitt's career.

But each film suffered from a horrible plague if you ever read the trades. Mr. Gilliam tended to excess. My beloved Baron film was 10 million over budget before principal photography had even begun.

He was being despised by Hollywood, sadly, because of the business he was running, not by the quality of his work.

So when I read the story of Lost in LaMacha, I knew I had to pay it a visit.

Call it the summer of documentaries, my friends, because that is what this is becoming.

Yeap, another documentary. And worse?

Another good documentary.

Notice I say 'good,' not great. I think in this MTV generation of rapid editing personal camcorders and boomers' recent discovery of reality television, the documentary format is getting more and more structured and therefore, readable by a large audience.

So there's nothing new here, I'm afraid. Sure, it's great to see a film in true production. This beats the tram tour at Universal Studios anyday. The movie starts strong and shows all the work that goes into preproduction and how making a movie really is hard work. I say this because so many want to be involved with filmmaking without realizing the emotional commitment--this is technically when art and business collide--and the way the process can be very tortured.

In this picture, Terry decides to tackle the tale of Don Quixote. What's interesting is the obvious, but not mentioned, parallel between Quixote's dreaming of a world not there and the movie's director. But the fascination fades as the reality of a faulty production hits. Problem after problem unfolds, as if Murphy's Laws were unleashed by a wrathful God, and the movie tanks and isn't finished.

The problem is, when the ordeals mount and mount, it becomes a bit scary and we begin to feel like the filmmakers, drowning in an unforgiving sea. It's sad, really, because we like everyone involved (check out the giant he hires) but they suffer and no falling action is brough for us to bring us up from the hellish experience. I'm reminded of the dissatification I felt after watching Star Wars Parts One and Two. The pall could not be removed as I realized that the character of Anakin is going to end up evil. I don't want to see that. I don't think many people want to. So they hold back liking the movie.

Same here. So I only rank it as good. See it if you want to see the film process or are Terry fan. Yes, Johnny Depp is in it briefly and yes, he is still strangely profound for his few moments.