BEST WORST MOVIE: The perils of making a documentary about delusion and its byproducts.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1144539/

BEST WORST MOVIE is a mixture of documentary and mockumentary about a film called TROLL 2 (full disclosure: I've never seen the latter).  Michael Stephenson,a child actor in TROLL 2, set out to document the film's lingering aftermath as a so-bad-it's-classic object of cult attention from young hipsters.  (Probably the grandfather of BEST WORST MOVIE is then-film writer Michael Medved crowning Edward D. Wood, Jr. as Worst Director and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE as Worst Film in THE GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS three decades ago).

Mostly, Stephenson focuses on TROLL 2 leading man George Hardy (best described as a mixture of KCET-TV's Huell Howser and cult character actor Charles Napier); Hardy's been a dentist for a number of years and, as the film has it, is happy to bathe in a reflected-glory-of-sorts status as TROLL 2 gets a number of screenings at hipster venues such as Austin's Alamo Drafthouse and L.A.'s Nuart Theatre.

Along ehe way, Stephenson makes some sidetrips into the sad present lives of TROLL 2 co-stars Robert Ormsby and Connie Young--these scenes tend to border on cruel exploitation for a mixture of cheap laughs/cheap pathos.

And, to pad out the film's running time, Hardy goes on unsuccessful jaunts to memorabilia shows in the UK and Texas (in the latter portion, he's made to appear like a clueless cross between Jethro Bodine and Paul Schrader's version of Bob Crane in AUTO-FOCUS).

For the climax, TROLL 2 is screened as an Alamo Drafthouse outdoor roadshow in a Utah town where its filming partially took place--giving the viewer more chances for yuks at the expense of director Claudio Fragasso (who, for better or worse, exudes lots of criticism-rolls-off-of-me self-confidence).

Except in a few minor instances, it's clear that Stephenson's not out to do the difficult work of true empathy with dreamers with ambitions that don't match with most notions of technical and/or thespian competence.  Instead, he wants to have things every possible way--fake laughs at others' expense and smirking distance from human misery--to name just two faults with BEST WORST MOVIE.

It's not that I'm a big fan of the ANVIL documentary either, but at least it bestows undeniable dignity on its missed-out-on-the-heavy-metal-brass-ring protagonists.

I don't think Michael Stephenson's aware of what the word "dignity" means.

Ben Lyons--is he the superstupid future of film criticism?

Searching my distant memory, there are a couple of things I recall from Pauline Kael's "The Current Cinema" columns of THE NEW YORKER.

One--She wrote about a NY PBS station's shoddy treatment of silent films broadcast (i.e. not showing them at the proper speed). Ms. Kael talked to station management and received an answer like "So we'll do this for you and the three people that care."

Two--Ms. Kael quoted Frank Yablans (a producer who was an ace marketer of not-always-classic films like SILVER STREAK, CONGO and the legendary MOMMIE DEAREST) as saying that film critics needed to be replaced every few years. Presumably Yablans meant that critics/reviewers who stay on the job too long wouldn't be as receptive to below-average current product as the go-along/get-along types who need to write favorable copy and get those Movie Star interviews for their employers.

Yablans probably would have loved someone like Ben Lyons in the 70s/80s.

Ben Lyons, son of the famed mediocrite Jeffrey Lyons (who once co-hosted a post-Siskel/Ebert SNEAK PREVIEWS with Michael Medved), cheerfully gives Disney/ABC the kind of knowledge-challenged down-with-all-things-current-as-long-as-they're-mainstream wet kisses each week on AT THE MOVIES.

Thanks to Jeffrey Wells of HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE for posting this link to a LOS ANGELES TIMES article critical of Lyons the younger: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-lyons28-2008dec28,0,5374132,full.story

If one were to actually complain to a Disney exec about the hiring of woefully underqualified Ben Lyons (in terms of glib careerism, Lyons outpaces even Richard Roeper), what would the response be?

Perhaps this: "So what? You're one of the ten people who cares."