Unrelentingly funny, highly entertaining, and ridiculously absurd, My Movie Starring Paul Dano is, according to its creator, Joe Bartone, a tribute to the willful ignorance of independent filmmaking found in the late ’70s in New York City. Developed through open discussions with the cast at the reading table, the mockumentary follows a delusional and fame-starved indie director, Herman Rumowicz, through the process of making his very first feature movie starring Paul Dano.
Herman, played by Christopher Jones, has a prophetic dream in which Paul Dano asks him to make a movie about naked Amazonians, a feature so great that, if made in time, it will give Herman the celebrity he craves. The movie, titled Bear Naked Amazonians from Mars, will, of course, star Paul Dano himself. In the dream, Dano gives Herman the exact budget he will need, down to the cent, before going off the grid while talking about sushi.
The dream gives Herman the precise incentive he needs to make his first independent feature film starring Paul Dano. He involves his former partner, friends, and family in the project, casting a kaleidoscope of wannabe actors from all walks of life, literally, as he finds them through flyers plastered on street poles.
Because of the dream he’s had, Herman is so sure Paul Dano will materialize and star in his movie that no one in his team even considers contacting the actor, and the shooting starts without Paul Dano. And through the scenes, the actors keep waiting for Paul Dano to come and take his place at the center of the movie, much like the characters in Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, are waiting for the title character.
My Movie Starring Paul Dano had me laughing out loud from the start. When Herman confesses that an indie film director is more like a cult leader, as he doesn’t have coworkers but disciples, I thought he was talking from a place of insanity and narcissism, but the events that follow just show that he was right all along.
Following the years of the #MeToo movement in the film industry and the well-documented reality of actresses having to succumb to the demand or pressure for sexual favors in exchange for career advancement or roles in the entertainment industry, in My Movie Starring Paul Dano, Joe Bartone gives an opposite perspective. Even though Herman seems to be a stand-up guy who would not ask this of any of his cast, the actresses throw themselves at him, hoping for more lines or better roles even in this ridiculous, no-budget movie he’s making. Even his own mother, whom he had cast as the Amazonian queen, makes a pass at him, a scene which I found both disturbing and hilarious at the same time.
Between the questionable script for Bear Naked Amazonian from Mars, the caliber of Herman’s actors, and the amateur background settings, he reminded me of classic director Ed Wood. Much like Herman, Wood was driven by a burning desire to make films and gain recognition, rather than any actual filmmaking talent.
Watching it months after the outrageous remarks Tarantino has made about Dano, My Movie Starring Paul Dano feels like an absurd but delicious retribution. It’s like Joe Bartone sensed what was to come and made this movie as a statement in support of Paul Dano. I have yet to see a feature film centered around Tarantino, with his actual name in the title.
