Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Stephen Groo, Jack Black, Lourie Bloomfield, Sherry Groo
Intro:
There is a slight imbalance, perhaps deliberate, between its more playful beginning and abject ending. In the final analysis, Christopherson opts for a more comic direction.
The Insufferable Groo (directed by Scott Christopherson) is about, as Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess puts it, “a true American do-it-yourself auteur”. A man so enthralled by the process of making movies his – might we say – oeuvre consists of 166 films at the time of Christoperson’s documentary.
An average day on the Groo set, often on an abandoned car park or in the towering forests of Utah, rakes in a staggering 148 shots!
Stephen, his wife Sherry, and their four sons live in her parents’ rent-free apartment, and they rely solely on Sherry’s $1000 per month income. Groo has tried, stopped, and failed in various jobs – the police academy, university teaching, paramedics. At the time of shooting he is unemployed. Since graduating with a Fine Arts degree, Groo has dedicated his adult life to making films.
Christopherson’s documentary begins when things are looking up for Groo. He plans to re-shoot an earlier film called The Unexpected Race – a quasi-fantasy about an ordinary family and a platinum blond elf. To execute the project, Groo enlists the (unpaid) assistance of Lourie Bloomfield, a local cinematography student. It is from this point that the truly “insufferable” nature of Groo becomes all too clear. His style of direction is frantic and bullish, and the product of his efforts are largely bombastic genre-pieces for a very niche audience. His casting couch is a rotating stream of dutiful friends, most of whom have grown tired of his skittish intensity and moved on.
What the documentary lacks is the steely command needed over Groo’s tragicomic aspects. There is a slight imbalance, perhaps deliberate, between its more playful beginning and abject ending. In many ways, he is a pathetic character; blighted by personal obsessions, unable to cooperate, and unwilling to face reality. In the final analysis, Christopherson opts for a more comic direction, splicing on-screen illustrations of Groo throughout the film to enhance his cartoonish effect.
A particularly strong segment is when Groo travels to Los Angeles to film a scene with Jack Black, procured by Jared Hess. Even more satisfying is seeing Groo and Sherry spend a day enjoying the city, rummaging through kitschy tourist parlours and finishing up in a glitzy nightclub. In these shots they are removed from their cramped apartment and financial woes, strolling along the streets of Hollywood like the showbiz couple they might have been in another life.
