The Williamsburg Witch Project
Baghead Directed & written by the Duplass Brothers
The Strangers has already proven that people with bags over their heads are terrifying, but the Duplass Brotherswhose first feature film, The Puffy Chair, is already a cult favoritehave gone out of their way to explore the funny side of a faceless man wearing a brown paper bag. Which is not to say that Baghead isnt also scary, in ways both intentional and accidental; but there are never those moments when youre so frightened that your fists are clenched so hard you give yourself stigmata.
Inspired by an on-set conversation during the making of The Puffy Chair, which turned into an argument about whether a man with a bag over his head was funny or scary, Baghead takes four out-of-work actors, dumps them in a remote mountain cabin and then introduces the titular character. But what makes Baghead more than just a hipster version of The Blair Witch Project (young filmmakers in the woods, being terrified) is the bromance at its core.
Blessed with Elvis hair, Matt (Ross Partidge) has no trouble getting the girlits getting rid of her thats the problem. Which explains why his ex, the aging never-was Catherine (Elise Muller) is tagging along with Matt and his best friend Chad (Steve Zissis) to Chads uncles cabin to write a movie that will make them all famous. Of course, Chad wants to make sure that the film features plenty of opportunities to make out with ditzy Michelle (mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig), who only has eyes for Matt. This, in turn, pisses Catherine off, because she refuses to abandon hope that she and Matt will reunite. Then, of course, theres that man with a bag over his head in the woods.
As the question of whether or not the Baghead is a stranger or just one of the foursome playing a joke becomes more and more serious, the annoying tics of what comes across as improvised dialogue start to abate. But while the roly-poly Chad and the sexy Matt come across as fully realized characters with a rock-solid friendship, the two women in their life come across as misogynistic stereotypesit feels like an equal failing in performance and writing. Muller is done no favors by her severe features and flat voice, both of which combine to create an uncanny resemblance to tranny superstar Candis Cayne; Gerwig, meanwhile, gives a grating performance in the mumblecore fashion that reduces you to near tears. Not even mumbling so much as swallowing words whole, Gerwig reminds you of all the girls on the L train whose appearance immediately requires fishing out your iPod and turning it up to full volume. Wishy-washy, blathering and willfully ignorant, she invests Michelle with no redeeming characteristics to make her attempted seduction of Matt palatable.
Thankfully for the film (and the viewer), the genuine terror at the possibility of being trapped in the middle of nowhere with a knife-wielding masked man pushes any minor quibbles aside. And its to the credit of the Duplass Brothers that not until long after the films end do Catherine and Michelle seem like the most obvious of female clichés. One is a self-obsessed actress of a certain age who refuses to let go of her ex-boyfriend, and the other is a pliant baby doll, more needy little girl than woman. Maybe in their next film, theyll do what they did for that titular puffy chair: turn women into characters worth rooting for.