Mule Skinner Blues

I am a movie addict and recently hit a wall with my massive DVD collection. It seemed that I had purchased every film worth owning. I realized this fact as I shopped Tower Records "going out of business" sale. Then I happened upon the Documentary section and realized that was a category I was lacking in. I bought every documentary that sounded interesting and "Mule Skinner Blues" was the best of the bunch. It's greatness lies in its ability to mix humor with genuine feeling. The movie shows compassion for it's low rent, trailer park dwelling characters instead of contempt. There is plenty of comedy in their drunken and eccentric behavior, but I'm sure the cast of real people are laughing along with the audience.

The film is highly stylized in the Errol Morris tradition of documentaries. It blends scenes of the film's subjects dancing on a surreal set, as well as scenes from other movies (Evil Dead 2, etc.)with actual interviews. The main "plot" is a man named Beanie and a guy named Larry Parrot writing and directing a movie about a vengeful ape-man creature and a guitar showdown between the devil and a man. It's all basically just a showcase to display some truly interesting people who live outside society's fringe. The lead guy could be Mark Borchardt from "American Movie" in 25 years. If you liked that movie, you'll most likely enjoy this one as well. The DUI video during the end credits is worth the rental price alone.

I think everyone is used to watching Hollywood cannibalize itself. It's so predictable, it's amazing that no one out there seems to catch on. Isn't one definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and always expecting different results? From 27 different Law And Orders to remaking the basic plot of "Halloween" 1000 times over, Hollywood will always find a way to ruin a good thing. Always. It's surprising, however, to see a documentary be such a blatant rip off of another (much better) movie. You'd think with the essentially limitless ideas one can come up with for a documentary, a filmmaker wouldn't have to (or want to) make a blueprint copy of another movie. Yet this movie is pretty much the exact same movie as American Movie. That is, except for the fact that you only catch lightning in the bottle once, and that came in the form of Mark Bourchardt. How those folks found this guy in Wisconsin that wanted to make a horror movie and actually decided to document it is amazing. Muleskinner Blues is pretty much a lame attempt to copy it, right down to the "movie premiere" with the local townsfolk looking on. Rent American Movie instead, for one of the funniest, and most ORIGINAL, documentaries you'll ever see.

Unlike a lot of people who reviewed this film and seem to think it's a crime to look at the lives of people who aren't doing all that well, I enjoyed Mule Skinner Blues and enjoyed these people. True, Beanie was a little annoying and his story got old quickly, but there are some no BS moments where we really get a contrast from the times that he is overly, "on." His description of falling into the depths of alcoholism is enough to scare you sober. Steve and Miss Jeannie are truly interesting characters and I loved "DUI Blues." I think that a bit more time could have been spent on exploring their artistry and a little bit less should have been spent on the making and premiere of Turnabout is Fairplay (sic).

After viewing Mule Skinner Blues I came away realizing that it was not like many documentaries that I have seen before. I found it to be highly stylized and incorporated many elements from fiction films. Like fiction films it had an actual soundtrack. It wasn't the usual no frills soundtrack that one finds in a documentary film. The director used fantasy sequences to help us get inside the minds of the characters. There was one particular sequence when Steve Walker was describing Vietnam and the director spliced in footage of explosions and combat sounds to help paint a picture for the viewer. I liked the whole approach to the film and the idea in that it showed a slice of Americana that is not familiar to all of us. The movie shows a different slant on the American dream by showing that these people living in a trailer park have dreams and aspirations to become famous although their situation seems hopeless. The film also acts as a film about a community group. It shows how these former alcoholics and eccentrics band together as a community to help Beanie make his film. Another thing that contributed to my liking this film is the way the director kept the film somewhat fast-paced. He did not allow the editing to lag and become boring. He edited the sequences in such a way that it switched between characters, keeping your interest going and not staying on one character for too long. The director himself said "For me, the greatest sin a filmmaker can make is to create monotony, so it's my goal to make a documentary film that's every bit as thrilling, engaging, and visually stimulating as the fiction genre allows." I also think that the director did an important thing by allowing us to see some of the footage that Beanie filmed with his camera. This helps to show that this is how Beanie really is. That footage was not shot by the director so we know that it is not influenced by his ideas; it is from the real authentic point of view of the character. All in all I enjoyed Mule Skinner Blues - I feel that it has the potential to change the documentary film genre because of the way it used elements of fiction filmmaking.

For a while, the locally-based documentary Mule Skinner Blues has its charms. But this ostensibly charming story of trailer-park residents who make their own horror movie starts to creak at about the halfway point, and eventually it just becomes annoying.

The movie's shaggy-dog tale is that Mayport resident Beanie Andrew appeared as an extra in a music video and then charmed the video crew so much that they decided to film his story. And for a while, one can almost believe that. Andrew claims it's been his life's dream to make a movie, and when he gets hold of a video camera, he finagles any neighbor with a smidgeon of talent to bring his project to fruition.

Said locals include guitarists Steve Walker and Ricky Lix, a yodeling singer named Miss Jeanie, and an erstwhile horror-story writer, Larry Parrot. They all have local followings of sorts, so even when the on-screen evidence of their talent is minimal, Andrew's assurance that they call pull off this gig is enough to satisfy you--at least for a while.

But when the movie starts using montage tricks and extensive clips from old horror films to goose its story along, it gives its own game away. Then the movie inexplicably leaps ahead three years, and it turns very bitter. Steve and Ricky have had a falling-out, Steve and Jeanie have lost their mates, and Andrew is recovering from alcoholism.

Finally--and again, inexplicably--Andrew and Parrot's 15-minute horror epic gets its debut in Jacksonville Beach, without a word as to how it ever got assembled or screened. And the fact that the movie got even a small premiere is supposed to be enough to satisfy its makers (and the audience of Mule Skinner Blues).

So we're left with deeply conflicting messages. Andrew is meant to be seen as a paragon of simple wisdom, even though his optimism doesn't last. Andrew and Parrot have dreams of making it big and yet are content with a one-night, rinky-dink screening of their movie. And the other performers go right back to the obscurity from which they came, without a word of complaint.

Like the down-home documentary Gates of Heaven (to which this movie has been much compared), Mule Skinner Blues labors mightily to uncover the astounding depth of simple folk. But I just don't buy into this cracker-barrel-wisdom concept. Even the movie's tagline--"Talent is half the battle, getting discovered is the other"--is a lie. Not content with their local followings, the "entertainers" in Blues seem far more concerned with making it big than with honi