Coven

As many others have commented after seeing American Movie, this movie was not HALF as bad as you would have expected. Mark comes off as a dufus for most of the documentary (I suppose a lot of us would), but Coven showed me why this guy was so driven. I'm sure when Mark saw some of the shots from this movie, he felt that he was in the zone, that it had all come together. That is probably why it took so long to come out with the rest of the movie, because it would have been difficult artistically to accept a lot of the more mediocre scenes.

I think that Mark should pursue a career in Hollywood or indie film as a journeyman cameraman / cinematographer, and hopefully somebody will help shape his raw talent. Then he can move on to bigger and better productions of his own, as I thought some of the story in Coven was excellent, although it was VERY uneven.

This movie sucks.

I know how much work goes into a production like this and I feel for Mike and everything he did with this movie, but it's quality is shoddy as hell. And I don't mean the camera and stuff like that. I LOVED clerks and that was shot with the same thing.

First of all, you can't tell when the protagonist is hallucinating and when he's not. The Cinematography doesn't carry those scenes. Now, this could be interesting if the plot was cohesive, but that doesn't happen either. A combination of poor dialogue, awkward transitions, and poor pacing stop that.

Honestly, this movie is just one giant manifestation of how Mark is in denial about his alcoholism.

But god bless him for making it.

What you don't understand is that Mike and Mark have both been to numerous Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. That is the background and inspiration for "Coven." From what you have seen in "American Movie," you may have realized that Mike Shank is a recovering drug abuser. Borschardt has had his share of spins with the bottle.

The "Coven" meetings are far-fetched, but they are not entirely baseless. AA meetings are one-sided, and AA members have a monopoly on the TRUTH. If an outsider goes to one, then it is taken as a given that he has erred and ruined his life. It is a very grueling process to become involved in AA, and the results are mixed at best. Many people recover better with no attendance at all.

"Coven" is Borschardt's spin on AA.

I don't get those who trash "Coven". It is a legit attempt at movie making, and while I can't rate very high due the fact there are many technical issues with this film and some issues with the script, it still is better than most low budget thrillers I have seen. I've seen worse acting in other low budget movies, and while not Oscar material, the acting for the most part doesn't hinder the movie in any way. No I can't do better, but rated against Orson Wells or Woody Allen this is okay at best. Rated against all the stuff he had go through to get this made and his lack of a budget it is a quite amazing piece of work. I'd like to see Mark with a real budget and real actors - the results can't be any worse those some stuff coming out of Hollywood already - and if he delivers on the promise he shows in this movie it would be at least entertaining.

I, like anyone else, never would have heard of this film had i not seen Chris Smith and Sarah Price's brilliant, funny and extremely touching documentary "American Movie". I recently purchased the "American Movie" dvd which contains "Coven", invited over a few other fans of the documentary, and gave it a go. The after disscussion concluded with the notion that had Mark Borschardt tried harder to stick with one genre he could have better concentrated on the story and suspense aspects of the horror or the plot and character development of the drama. He has a very artistic look to his film (context - coffee cup) and i believe his only flaw is a lack of concentration on the characters and story (content - the coffee). i am intrested in the results of "Northwestern".