‘Baghead’ | 3 stars
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star
“The Blair Witch Project” meets “Swingers” in “Baghead,” and you’ll never guess what’s coming next. (It opens today at the Tivoli.)
The latest effort from the Duplass brothers (“The Puffy Chair”) begins as a comedy about four out-of-work actors who retreat to a remote lakeside cabin for a weekend to write a movie for themselves.
Three of the thesps are approaching 40, all too aware that their window of opportunity for steady employment — much less stardom — is quickly closing.
Matt (Ross Partridge) is matinee idol handsome, but his looks haven’t translated into much work. Maybe it’s because he’s essentially lazy.
Catherine (Elise Muller) is a beautiful blonde (and Matt’s ex), understanding the limited shelf life on her allure and trying to keep bitterness at bay.
Chad (Steve Zissis) is smart, short, schlubby and sexually insecure.
Their foursome is rounded out by the 20-something Michelle (Greta Gerwig), whom the puppydoggish Chad yearns for so desperately that it hurts to watch. His feelings are not reciprocated; Michelle has eyes for Matt.
“You’re like my best friend,” Michelle tells Chad. “Also my brother.”
Just shoot him now.
After a night of drinking, Michelle is awakened by a dream in which the four are menaced by a figure with a paper bag over its head. She relays this nightmare to her comrades, and Matt declares it the perfect setup for a movie about four people being menaced in a cabin by a mysterious killer.
All Chad cares about is whether he and Michelle can be cast as lovers.
Late at night Michelle is visited in her room by someone with a bag on his head. The others deny any knowledge.
And then people start disappearing. Their car is sabotaged. A knife-wielding figure with the requisite brown paper headgear is spotted at the edge of the woods.
OMG! The movie they’re writing is coming to life!
The handheld camerawork and iffy focus that marked the earlier passages as classic low-budget moviemaking become the perfect medium for capturing the characters’ anxiety as spooky things start happening just out of camera range.
There are at least three jump-out-of-your-seat moments here.
But what’s really impressive are the performances. There’s something deliciously perverse in having four largely unknown actors playing four desperate unknown actors. And they create fully rounded characters, too.
The Duplass boys (Jay and Mark) are incredibly sneaky … the film’s look and pacing suggest a hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show spontaneity, but in fact it has all been painstakingly assembled to make us drop our defenses and leave us vulnerable to the Big Scare.
Gotcha!
‘BAGHEAD’ ★★★
Director: Jay and Mark Duplass
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Steve Zissis, Ross Partridge, Elise Muller
Rated: R for language, some sexual content and nudity
Running time: 1:20
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