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.
Review of Mule Skinner Blues
