'Baghead' is never as ironic or frightening as it could be

Indie film pulls nothing interesting out of the bag

By Michael Sragow

September 5, 2008

A highly touted example of the "mumblecore" movement, known for peanut-size budgets, improvisation and prolonged handheld takes, Baghead is at best disarming. The co-directors and co-writers, Jay and Mark Duplass, appear to be saying, "Hey, we are the new emperors of the independent cinema. And guess what? We have no clothes."

In their sparse-to-nonexistent scenario, two male and two female actors, impressed by the film-festival success of a lousy indie romance (with lots of nudity), take off for a cabin in Big Bear, Calif., convinced they can concoct a better script on a long weekend. The graying alpha male, Matt (Ross Partridge), persuades his sweet, round-faced friend Chad (Steve Zissis) to play along because Chad will get to act the boyfriend of Michelle (played by mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig). Chad wishes this deceptively spacey, proudly nubile performer were his girlfriend in real life, but Michelle only has eyes for Matt, while Matt's sleek ex-girlfriend, Catherine (Elise Muller), wants to rekindle their old passion, adding to her old lover's confusion.

The movie's poster advertises it like a remake of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice with bags over their heads. If only that were so. Actually, it's about what happens when Matt cooks up a horror movie idea about a silent, nameless villain menacing the cabin with a bag over his head - and the scenario seems to come true. Individual jealousies, fantasies and ambitions fan the group's growing mistrust into all-out paranoia.

The film has moments of horror-fueled humor, but they're never as funny or scary as they should be. And even if the minimalist plot is a shrewd response to meager production money, it feels overused. Funny Games and The Stranger played similar narratives for, respectively, sadistic ironies and single-minded terror. The mute menace of the villain's presence, the dislocation the characters feel inside and out of their cabins or hospital rooms, the draining of their cell phones and the wrecking of the heroes' getaway car - these elements become trite in this script. The Duplass brothers execute them as if by rote.

Most of the actors perform as if they'd just been released from test tubes. Muller does wonders with the quiet desperation of a regal, aging beauty who sees supple newcomers like Michelle as pretenders to her shaky throne. There's no space for commiseration in this tight, shiny product. It's The Blair Witch Project meets The Unknown Comic. Baghead would best be seen with a group of friends prepared to goof on it. Even if you have some laughs, you won't buy the denouement - not in an L.A. fast-lane minute.

Baghead

( Sony Pictures Classics) Starring Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller. Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. Rated R for language, some sexual content and nudity. Time 84 minutes.