I felt like putting a bag over MY head.
Baghead (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:87
Fresh:67
Rotten:20
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Pitting actors against murderers in a self-aware struggle for stardom, Baghead successfully skates the borders of horror and comedy.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, some sexual content and nudity.
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jun 13, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Following up on the surprise success of their micro-budget production THE PUFFY CHAIR (2005), brothers Jay and Mark Duplass turn their handheld DV camera toward skewering the pretentiousness of the... Following up on the surprise success of their micro-budget production THE PUFFY CHAIR (2005), brothers Jay and Mark Duplass turn their handheld DV camera toward skewering the pretentiousness of the independent film world while tossing in a few horror film scares for good measure. The result is entertaining and unique, with enough laughs, insight, and excitement for adventurous viewers. After seeing the accolades heaped up on a colleague for his laughable film (WE ARE NAKED) at a Los Angeles film festival, Matt (Ross Partridge) decides that he can do better. With his sometime girlfriend, Catherine (Elise Muller), and friends Michelle (Greta Gerwig, HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS) and Chad (Steve Zissis) in tow, they immediately set off to a cabin in the woods for the weekend to create the film that will make them all famous on the festival circuit. While Chad focuses his energy on winning the affections of uninterested Michelle, Matt comes up with the cinematic construct of a stranger with a paper bag on his head terrorizing a group of people in the woods. After the initial evening of alcoholic brainstorming, though, the idea becomes reality, and the friends' relationships are tested as they find themselves in a truly scary situation. The idea for BAGHEAD was hatched on the set of the THE PUFFY CHAIR when, during a discussion requesting those involved to think of the scariest thing imaginable, someone said, "A guy with a bag on his head staring into your window." Though it may be a flimsy starting point for a film, the Duplasses surround the idea with a believable cast, truthful insight into relationships, and a few genuine chills. The result is clever, funny, and refreshingly difficult to classify. [More]
Starring: Steve Zissis, Ross Partridge, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller
Starring: Steve Zissis, Ross Partridge, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller
Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Screenwriter: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Producer: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, John Bryant
Composer: J Scott Howard
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for Baghead
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.'
[A] clever insider's riff about life on the lo-fi end of the indie spectrum.
In this interview, filmmakers Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass talk about the road to their first distributed feature, the process of their filmmaking and the meaning of the term mumblecore.
I want to persuade you to see Baghead, but I don't want to overhype it, because in many ways it's a delicate construction best served as a surprise.
Takes an ingenious -- and perhaps necessary -- shift into more accessible filmmaking. Okay, it's less of a shift than a sort of yawning amiable slouch, but you get my drift.
Baghead is at its best when it captures the subtleties of romantic machinations, macho power plays and the indignity of women aging in Hollywood.
The truth eventually comes out, as it must, and it's not exactly a stunner.
For all the use of first takes and jerky camera moves, the John Cassavetes invoked by Baghead is not the indie pioneer saint but his Faustian thespian-husband character in Rosemary's Baby.
The directors like dissonant relationships: Here, their spectacularly self-absorbed protagonists step on each other, jockeying first for position and ultimately for survival.
Once the threat arrives, I was praying to return to the childish mating rituals of these monotonous characters. Watching lousy actors try to express heartache through limited gifts is far more frightening than any masked, crazed killer.
Baghead is an original, confident piece of filmmaking that isn't easily categorized or even summarized.
Baghead's got exactly one joke to exploit -- it's a relationship movie masquerading as a horror movie -- and proceeds to beat it to death.
Although it displays some mumblecore characteristics, such as a performance from Hannah Takes the Stairs star Greta Gerwig, Baghead distances itself from the movement by being âĶ well, watchable.
Baghead works on the same principle Lucy used when she kept promising she would hold the football for Charlie Brown but kept moving it before he could kick it.
Baghead delivers more scares with its paper masked stalker than Jason and Michael Myers combined in their respective reboots.
When the origami model of the plot finally unfolds, and the well-justified surprises are disclosed, there are still a couple of revelations up the Duplass brothers' sleeves.
Baghead is a mumblecoreish meditation on the increasingly permeable boundaries between movies and life.
Latest News for Baghead
June 20, 2008:
Baghead: A Mumblecore Mix of Laughs and Screams ![]()
A guy with a bag on his head can play out a couple of ways. The Unknown Comic went for laughs. Recent films such as "The Orphanage" and "The Strangers" go for straight scares.... More...
May 11, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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May 06, 2008:
trailer and trailer review ![]()
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