Sundance Movie Review: Baghead

People complain that Sundance has sold out. That every film in the festival features a big name movie star or a returning filmmaker. And for the most part, that might be true. But I don't think Sundance has sold out, at least not in the film selection. I think Independent cinema has changed into an altogether different beast. And maybe in ten years the YouTube generation might penetrate and create a whole new independent revolution, but until then, it's become what it now is.

A few years ago I walked into a screening of The Puffy Chair expecting nothing, and left floored. It was an incredibly enjoyable low low low budget film starring, produced, directed, and shot by The Duplass Brothers.

Four years later the Brothers return to the Prospector theater in Park City to premiere their new film Baghead. Part relationship drama, part thriller, part comedy, Baghead is the kind of film I imagined Sundance to be fifteen years ago. Shot in sequence, partly improved, on a extremely small budget using HD cameras, Baghead tells the story of a group of desperate actor friends who decide to take a weekend trip to a Condo in the woods of California to shoot a movie. Without a script, they come up with the idea for a horror movie about a group of friends who are terrorized by a man with a brown paper bag on his head. But what happens with Baghead actually shows up?

Baghead is a one of a kind experience which will fill your stomach with joy, and hope for the future of indie cinema. Puffy Chair and Baghead just might be the Slacker and Clerks for the youtube generation.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10