ART WE LIKE: Trent Harris' The Beaver Trilogy

The Beaver Trilogy is a movie. Crispin Glover is in it. We like him.

So it starts with this dude in a parking lot being filmed by this other dude. The one dude does some impressions and stuff. Then the two dudes split up... Then the one dude writes to the other dude and tells him that he's doing a show and he's going to dress up as Olivia Newton John and the dude (the camera dude) should film it. Then we see this talent show, which ends with this dude singing like Olivia Newton John.

(Pretend this paragraph is in black and white.) Then we see these two new dudes in the parking lot. One is holding a camera and the other is Sean Penn and he is doing impressions. Then they split, and it turns out the one dude (Sean Penn) is putting on a talent show. The camera dude goes to film it, and film it. Eventually Sean Penn dresses up like Olivia Newton John and sings. Then the camera dude leaves. Then Sean Penn calls the camera dude and goes 'hey dude, I don't want that to be on TV,' but the camera dude says 'no' or whatever...

(Now we're in color again, and we look like a movie.) There's this dude who like Olivia Newton John (like we said, Crispin Glover). He goes to a restaurant and Dottie is there. People make fun of him, but he will be on TV, he says. The he goes to a parking lot and runs into this camera dude. He does some impressions... etc... talent show... etc...
[SPOILERS]
dresses like Olivia Newton John...
[END SPOILERS]

So as you can tell from my synopsis, the movie is awesome! It is a documentary, a narrative, and an experimental film. It is case-study in obsession, hind-sight, and regret. No amount of thesis papers on the re-enactments in The Thin Blue Line will tell you as much about the objectivity (or the lack there of) in cinema as The Beaver Trilogy.

Check out the official site HERE.

Dan