People From Space
(1999)
review by Head Cheeze

It's not every day you get to review a movie made by a guy who lives down the street from you! Well, down the street about 20 miles, but where I live that's pretty damned close. Marc Berlin, writer/director of the faux-docudrama People from Space, operates his Black Sheep Films out of Middletown, Rhode Island, a place I always considered "the long road between my house and Newport". Who'da thunk that an honest to goodness filmmaker lived there?

Bob (Berlin), Felicia (Klaymen), Sean (Sheffield) and Missy (Hill) are a group of friends who go off hiking in the woods in search of a U.F.O. that's crashed at an isolated lake. Bob is convinced that it's there, and tells the group that there's a one hundred thousand dollar reward for whoever brings back evidence of it's existance. Sean and Missy, both braindead slacker types, go along good naturedly, while Bob's seemingly loving wife encourages her husband with an almost co-dependent sense of support. As the quartet venture deeper into the woods, Bob gets more fanatical about the quest, while his companions grow more disdainful of Bob.

Filmed as a sort of Waiting for Guffman cum The Blair Witch Project, Berlin's background in documentary work (he's made several films about natural disasters!) would make one think that a spoof on the genre would be second nature, but that's not really the case. Instead, the film plays like an episode of The Larry David Show, with more of a "fly on the wall" feel. The structure gets a little confusing when the characters are interviewed on camera. You see, they never acknowledge that a camera is there at all, nor is the cameramen ever included in the action. There are also jumps to several angles and edits that completely negate the documentary effect. It's a small gripe that doesn't get in the way so much as it lessens the authenticity of the parody.

Shot in three days for $7,000, the film was completely ad-libbed from a ten page outline, meaning that each and every line you hear was more than likely delivered on the fly. It's a courageous decision but the results are very hit or miss, and oftentimes the cast seem to talk all over each other. There are a few laugh out loud funny moments though, and Berlin, who's pretty much the best improv guy in the bunch, is a very dry and eccentric fella who seems to relish spontaneous dialogue.

The DVD from Elite presents the film in a matted letterboxed transfer. The film was shot on video and later Filmlooked. For those who've never heard of Filmlook, it's a process that removes frames from video, bringing it down to the 24 frames per second rate of actual film. The transfer is very sharp, and the Filmlook process really does spruce things up quite a bit! The disc features a very cool commentary, and this is probably my favourite part of the disc. The commentary features Berlin and Klaymen, and while it's not knee slappingly funny it's damned informative! Berlin gives something of a course in professional videography, and budding filmmakers should seriously consider picking this disc up if only for this reason. The disc also features a stills gallery and the original trailer.

People from Space is a mostly harmless sci-fi spoof with great production values, but the improvisational approach fails to get this vessel off the ground.