Film
American Movie
A real Wisconsin dreamer named Mark Borchardt spends years trying to finish his no-budget horror short 'Coven' while his life quietly falls apart around him. It's scrappy, hilarious, and unexpectedly moving verité filmmaking — a comedy about failure that somehow becomes a genuine tribute to stubborn, unglamorous hope. Essential for anyone who's ever loved a project more than it loved them back.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy documentaries where the subject's own stubbornness drives the comedy, and you can laugh at a dream while still feeling for the person chasing it.
Skip it if you want a tidy story with clear stakes and steady progress, since this is loose, rambling footage that circles the same frustrations and lingers on setbacks.
What it asks of you: At 104 minutes, a shaggy observational rhythm: long scenes of waiting and bickering, humor that arrives unforced, and a mood that swings between cheerful and bleak.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Disaster Artist2017
James Franco's loving, very funny recreation of Tommy Wiseau making 'The Room' is the closest thing to a glossy studio cousin of American Movie — same delusion, same devotion, more polish.
But It's a dramatized retelling rather than the real, ragged thing, and some of the mystique gets sanded off in the translation.
Grizzly Man2005
Werner Herzog's documentary about a man who lived among grizzly bears shares Mark's obsessive, self-mythologizing energy, but pushes the joke of American ambition somewhere much darker.
But It ends in genuine tragedy, and Herzog's cool philosophical narration is a colder register than American Movie's warmth.
Best Worst Movie2009
A documentary about the accidental cult classic 'Troll 2' and its earnest small-town cast, with the same affection for lovable amateurs chasing a strange kind of glory.
But It's gentler and more celebratory throughout — less of the financial dread and family strain that gives American Movie its edge.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from American Movie
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Ed Wood1994
Ed Wood is Mark Borchardt's spiritual grandfather: a joyfully untalented true believer surrounded by a ramshackle found family, making cheap genre pictures out of pure love rather than skill — just told forty-five years earlier, in fiction, with a Hollywood budget.
Tim Burton's black-and-white biopic about Hollywood's most famously terrible director is, unbelievably, the fictionalized origin story for every Mark Borchardt who ever lived — same ragtag crew, same unstoppable belief that this film will be the one.
But It's a tender, stylized Hollywood valentine rather than a document of real struggle, so the stakes never feel as raw or as truly at risk.
People
Cast
Mark BorchardtFilmmaker
Mike SchankFriend / Musician- Tom SchimmelsActor in 'Coven'
- Monica BorchardtMark's Mom
- Alex BorchardtMark's Brother
- Chris BorchardtMark's Brother
- Ken KeenFriend / Associate Producer
- Matt WeismanCasting Director
- Bill BorchardtMark's Uncle / Executive Producer
- Cliff BorchardtMark's Dad
- Tom BeachProduction Manager
- Joan PetrieMark's Girlfriend / Associate Producer
Directing
- Chris SmithDirector
Production
- Jim McKayCo-Producer
- Michael StipeCo-Producer
- Chris SmithProducer
- Sarah PriceProducer
- Dan OllmanProduction Assistant
- Patrick BuckleyProduction Assistant
Recommended by
Superheroes, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Klovn, The Office, Super 8, Trekkies, Room 237, Class Action Park, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Spellbound, Grey Gardens, Crumb, The Disaster Artist, Best Worst Movie, Ed Wood, Vernon, Florida, Waiting for Guffman, Gates of Heaven, Jodorowsky's Dune, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Lost in La Mancha, Burden of Dreams, The Kid Stays in the Picture, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Freaks and Geeks, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Wordplay, Rushmore, The Room, Living in Oblivion, Salesman, This Country, Trailer Park Boys, Nebraska, Troll 2, Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Chronicle of a Summer, Tarnation, Wrestlers, Sherman's March, Everything Sucks!, Seven Psychopaths, Bowfinger, Not Quite Hollywood, 51 Birch Street, Stevie, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Confessions of a Superhero, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Ghost Image - On the set of Ghostland, The Decline of Western Civilization Part III, Becoming Iconic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Zanzibar