What Is It? - review and interview

Back to the Future was my favorite movie as a kid. So when I had the chance to see Crispin Glover’s directorial debut at Sundance this year, I went for it. Crispin of course played George McFly, and had a couple other successes in Willard and the Charlies Angeles series. He is supposedly known around Hollywood as someone who has his own methods which are notoriously hard to work around.

His first feature, What Is It?, at best could be called experimental. Shot in 16mm with a cast mostly of down syndrome kids, the movie is definitely the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.

At one point, a guy claims to be Michael Jackson and is worshiped by the handicapped kids, only later to be discovered as a fake. The kids throw rocks at the man shouting, “You’re not famous, you’re not famous!” Throughout the film, the kids pour salt on snails and we see in micro close-up their untimely death. Glover plays some sort of king who holds a staff and worships the swastika.
Glover got up at the end of the film and explained himself. I’m not sure if he justified the film or the two sequels in development, but he came off well-spoken and gave a new perspective to what he calls the Counter Culture Film Movement. It turns out there was a purpose for most or all of it, at least according to Glover. Because of his Q&A, people didn't dismiss the movie as just another experimental film and it was a part of the buzz on many of the Park City shuttle buses.

The script follows The Hero's Journey structure (ala Joseph Campbell), but you could hardly tell. I couldn't find a narrative whilst watching it, although I'm now convinced there is one. Glover is one of those people that sits on that fine line between Genius and Insanity, and I can't help but think that this film is either too above me, or too insane for me to understand.

Yahoo! Movies ran an interview with Glover today and it’s well worth the read.