Director: Jeff Malmberg (debut film)
Documentary
On Blu-Ray/DVD: April 12, 2011
This will be a very short review because, well, I didn't really take that much away from Marwencol. Also, I'm lazy. Not to say that it's a bad movie.
Marwencol is a documentary about Mark Hogancamp, a man who is beaten nearly to death by a gang of men because he told them he was a cross-dresser. The film follows Hogancamp's odd path to recovery from the brain injury that they caused. To cope with his disabled life, he created an entire city (named Marwencol) full of dolls and action figures, each of them with full back-stories. The sheer detail that Hogancamp attains in this city is mind-blowing. In one scene, we follow Hogancamp as he "breaks in" one of the humvees that his soldiers use in Marwencol by pulling it down a busy road for two miles. He does this because the new tires don't seem realistic enough to him. The level of sophistication that Hogancamp is able to bring out of such a poor medium as action figures is easily the best part of the film. The lives of these action figures is just as fascinating. I actually found myself caring more about the city of Marwencol than the man behind it.
That's a good enough transition to what I didn't like about Marwencol. For all the depth and beauty that Malmberg was able to bring out of the city Hogancamp created, he did a very poor job of telling Hogancamp's story. The entire crux of the storyline (the beating) is rarely discussed, and the repercussions are only hinted at. We are given a few looks into Hogancamp's life outside of Marwencol, but it is very disjointed and not very complete. My biggest complaint about the film, though, is how forced it can seem at times. Two specific scenes immediately come to mind: a scene where Hogancamp revisits the place where he was assaulted, and what I'll term, for spoiler purposes, "the high heel scene". These scenes are very short and seem very out of character for who Hogancamp is built up to be throughout the rest of the film.
Overall, though, this is a documentary worth seeing simply for the city of Marwencol. I've seen nothing like it before and it is a very unique and strangely beautiful piece of artwork. I definitely wish I knew more about Hogancamp, and I wish Malmberg would've let his film be what it was without a few unrealistic scenes, but Marwencol should, at the very least, give you something to talk about.
This will be a very short review because, well, I didn't really take that much away from Marwencol. Also, I'm lazy. Not to say that it's a bad movie.
Marwencol is a documentary about Mark Hogancamp, a man who is beaten nearly to death by a gang of men because he told them he was a cross-dresser. The film follows Hogancamp's odd path to recovery from the brain injury that they caused. To cope with his disabled life, he created an entire city (named Marwencol) full of dolls and action figures, each of them with full back-stories. The sheer detail that Hogancamp attains in this city is mind-blowing. In one scene, we follow Hogancamp as he "breaks in" one of the humvees that his soldiers use in Marwencol by pulling it down a busy road for two miles. He does this because the new tires don't seem realistic enough to him. The level of sophistication that Hogancamp is able to bring out of such a poor medium as action figures is easily the best part of the film. The lives of these action figures is just as fascinating. I actually found myself caring more about the city of Marwencol than the man behind it.
That's a good enough transition to what I didn't like about Marwencol. For all the depth and beauty that Malmberg was able to bring out of the city Hogancamp created, he did a very poor job of telling Hogancamp's story. The entire crux of the storyline (the beating) is rarely discussed, and the repercussions are only hinted at. We are given a few looks into Hogancamp's life outside of Marwencol, but it is very disjointed and not very complete. My biggest complaint about the film, though, is how forced it can seem at times. Two specific scenes immediately come to mind: a scene where Hogancamp revisits the place where he was assaulted, and what I'll term, for spoiler purposes, "the high heel scene". These scenes are very short and seem very out of character for who Hogancamp is built up to be throughout the rest of the film.
Overall, though, this is a documentary worth seeing simply for the city of Marwencol. I've seen nothing like it before and it is a very unique and strangely beautiful piece of artwork. I definitely wish I knew more about Hogancamp, and I wish Malmberg would've let his film be what it was without a few unrealistic scenes, but Marwencol should, at the very least, give you something to talk about.
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