The Beaver Trilogy

I became interested in Trent Harris' work because of my interest in Crispin Glover, so I managed to get ahold of a copy of The Beaver Trilogy thinking that even if the film itself wasn't any good, at least it would have Crispin dressed as Olivia Newton-John.

And I was happy to find that the film as a whole was so awesome and stands on its own. Though I can see where some people with small attention spans and/or a complete lack of taste might have a problem sitting through its more quiet moments at the beginning, I find that the mark of a person with respectable taste can be found in their capacity to enjoy Trent Harris films.

This collection also makes a wonderful companion film to Rubin and Ed. Trent Harris is a great filmmaker who is completely underappreciated. I love The Beaver Trilogy.

THE BEAVER TRILOGY is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant films ever made. I was lucky enough to catch it, along with a Q&A session with director Trent Harris, at the NY Video Festival a few years back and then bought a copy off of Trent's website. This movie HAS to be seen to be believed! I sincerely recommend searching for Trent's name on the web and then buying the film from his site. He's an incredibly nice guy to boot. Don't get confused: The cameraman in the fictional sections of THE BEAVER TRILOGY is NOT Trent!

After having seen the TRILOGY a few times, I do have to admit that I could probably do without the Sean Penn version. It's like a try-out version for the Crispin Glover "Orkly Kid" section and is interesting more as a curiosity item if you're a Penn fan than it being a good video. Penn is pretty funny, though, and you can see the makings of a big star in this gritty B&W video.

This is probably also one of Crispin Glover's best roles and I would just love to see an updated documentary about the original Groovin' Gary. Once you see this film, you'll never get Gary's nervous laughter out of your head ever again.

This is how i felt while watching this film. I loved it. It was hilarious. But i did feel a like i was getting sneaky view into somebody's psyche and then laughing as it got twisted around to make an interesting point. A friend put it this way:

"I feel like we broke into somebody's house and are now watching their awful home videos without their knowledge".

Another one of those fact is stranger than fiction pieces of film. "Groovin' Gary", the original "Beaver Kid", is a small town guy who turns up at a nearby TV station in the hope of getting on film - and he certainly does, though not, perhaps, as he initially expected. With high hopes of fame and significance he invites Harris to come and film a truly awful talent quest that he has organised in his home town - headlined by his own drag act "Olivia Newton-Don".

Director, Trent Harris, does a brilliant job with this slowly evolving story. Some footage of an awkward kid who wants to be someone morphs, over two subsequent reinterpretations, into the story of freedom from repressed sexual identity in small town America. Harris simultaneously critiques the attitudes of small town America, the cult of celebrity, and the exploitative practices of the film and television industry.

Both Sean Penn and Grispin Glover pull out stunner performances. a young Sean Penn is the most evocative - so closely does he follow the actual 'Gary footage', but with strong nuances given to push the sense of the interaction the way Harris wants it to go.

In the end the wide-eyed naivety the original Gary is what moved me - when contrasted against these possible interpretations of his situation.

A film not to miss. I have not seen anything else like it.

Jacob.

True, the trilogy is no spectacle (the way most commercialized Americans would like to see a director handle a trilogy), but that's no reason to write it off as unworthy cinema.

Of course, I'm a little biased (being a huge Crispin Glover fan), but I thought this film served a unique and ultimately wonderful purpose...but if you're not studying acting, you may not see the same study material that I do.

Sean Penn and Crispin Glover both do an amazing job inhabiting the skin of this wayfaring Olivia Newton-John enthusiast, and seeing these two progressive talents picking and choosing tidbits of personality detail from the documentary, and then adding their own experience is something that any avid cinema fan should enjoy. A look into the psyche of the actor as well as the portrayed.

Plus there's the irony of impersonating an impersonator, which really just makes me smile.

In short, it's great study material...and entertaining.

The short that starts this film is the true footage of a guy named Gary, apparently it was taken randomly in the parking lot of a television station where Gary works in the town of Beaver. Gary is a little "different"; he is an impersonator and drives an old Chevy named Farrah (after Fawcett). Lo and behold the filmmaker gets a letter from Gary some time later inviting him to return to Beaver to get some footage of the local talent contest he has put together, including Gary's staggering performace as Olivia Newton Dawn. Oh, my. The two shorts that follow are Gary's story, the same one you just witnessed only the first is portrayed by Sean Penn and the second by Crispin Glover titled "The Orkly Kid." If you are in the mood for making fun of someone this is definitely the film to watch. I was doubled over with laughter through most of it, especially Crispins performance which could definitely stand on it's own. When it was over, I had to rewind the film to once again watch the real Gary and all his shining idiocy. Although Olivia was the focus, I would have liked to have seen one of the "fictitious" shorts take a jab at Gary's Barry Manilow impersonation, whic h was equally ridiculous.