★★★★★
Anthony Firth’s Mockbuster is a documentary that captures the heart and soul of exploitation movies, offering an inside look at the studio that has produced some of the best worst movies ever made. It documents his journey as a first-time filmmaker into the abyss with a company whose sole purpose is making “bad movies.”
Opening with an introduction to not only the filmmaker behind the documentary but also the filmmaker the film is documenting, Mockbuster introduces us to Anthony Firth himself: the man, the myth, the legend, who got his big feature directorial break simply by asking to direct a film for them. Easily one of the greatest big-break stories ever.
Firth’s approach to the documentary is what makes it not only work, but flourish. He takes what he learns from making The Land That Time Forgot: movies should be no longer than 90 minutes, and they should be fun.
Simply because, “No one wants to sit through a three-hour movie. Yeah, I’m talking to you, James Cameron.”
“Bold, insightful and hilarious!”
Like all documentaries, Mockbuster has a core idea behind it—something it wants its audience to understand. For Mockbuster, it’s whether there’s a difference between a “bad movie” and a bad movie.
“Mockbuster is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in the past decade.”
Through its traditional interview segments, we gain a better understanding of this philosophy.
With interviews spanning Oscar-nominated actor Eric Roberts, the co-directors of Talk to Me, and the heads of the studio behind The Asylum, the film brings together people who are knowledgeable about the subject and were part of its origins.
What makes Mockbuster stand out is the talent both behind and in front of the camera—in the most literal sense.
Anthony has the opportunity to talk with someone like Roberts, who’s not only a Hollywood movie star with an Oscar nomination and experience on hundred-million-dollar productions, but also someone who has done countless Asylum films.
Having his insight and opinion on what it’s like to make an Asylum film versus a big-budget Hollywood production is not only insightful, it’s intriguing.
The same goes for Michael Philippou. While his interview scenes aren’t as detailed as Roberts’, we also get to see him hanging out on the set of The Land That Time Forgot.
It offers an inside look at who might randomly pop up on these film sets, connecting the dots between genre films and showing just how deeply intertwined they are, even if the head of the studio says Hollywood doesn’t think they even exist.
The interviews with the heads of the studio are just as entertaining as they are insightful and grounded.
Talking about the difference between their movies and Hollywood productions, they point out that no one sets out to make a bad movie—but people do it all the time. Except for them, of course. Their movies are supposed to be bad, but they’re bad in a fun way.
The documentary offers not only logical insight into their business model, but also an inside look at what makes both the studio and the people behind it tick.
Beyond the interviews, we also get an inside look at just how much work goes into making a movie—even a “bad movie”—and just how much care, heart, and effort go into it.
We get to witness a true underdog story, watching a filmmaker achieve his dream of making a feature studio film and the realization that comes with it.
It’s a real-life experience that reminds me of that Dawson’s Creek episode when Dawson finally makes it to Hollywood and, after his first day interning on a studio film, the security guard says, “It’s not like you imagined it would be, is it, kid?”
Showing us the artistry behind cheap movies, cheap laughs, and why we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them.
Mockbuster offers a unique insight into the world of low-budget filmmaking, one that will make you reconsider how you see “bad movies.”
“Will give you a new appreciation of mockbusters.”
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