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From the Wikipedia article:
Clark: A Gonzomentary is an American 2013 gonzo journalism-styled mockumentary written, directed and produced by Daniel D. Warwick about a fictionalized version of himself documenting an eccentric local artists creative process and obsession with phallic art. The film satirizes the wild personal behavior, social deviations and self-image pretensions of artists and filmmakers, and was inspired by Satyr plays, Dadaism, contemporary counter-culture artists, the film Pollock as well as other influences. It is a style of metafiction.
Warwick and the two main actors, William Clark and James Curcio, are credited as the writers of the movie based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them. The episodes plots and scenes were scripted with a loose outline and talking points that the actors were required to improvise around, a method that Warwick borrowed from Larry David's H.B.O series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Clark: A Gonzomentary began as a seven episode bi-weekly webseries syndicated by Alterati.com in 2010, and a 2011 five episode fictional "behind the scenes" series[1] which was edited together and serves as the long-form movie version.
In 2012, Clark: A Gonzomentary was given a four-star review and deemed "a gonzomentary truly realized" by Film Threat[2] and was awarded Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy or mockumentary: William Clark by The 2013 LA Web Series Festival.[3] The term "gonzomentary" was created by director Daniel D. Warwick and was a portmanteau of the words "gonzo", from gonzo journalism, and "mockumentary" to define a new type of film where metafictional events are presented to show fictional events in a subjective first-person narrative in documentary style to create a parody of itself intentionally to confuse the viewer between reality and fiction. This included using fictional hype and notoriety to make audiences believe that that hype and notoriety existed while insisting that the film is a work of fine art.Review on imdb:
The "Spinal Tap" of the Art World., 3 June 2013
Author: csheldon1344 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
"I'm going to make Marcel Duchamp's Fountain look like a urinal!" proclaims artist-dilettante-psychopath William Clark, and he does just that. Maybe it's because I'm an ex- art student, but this movie had me rolling on the floor. (A floor that smelled mysteriously of ...)
In an effort to focus on character and theme, this movie kind of steamrollers right past plot. Which for the most part is alright, who wants another comedy with a fake Hollywood plot skin-grafted into the script?, but sometimes the meta- meta- 4th wall breaking gets to be a bit much. At that very point the movie seems to become aware of that as well, and starts to make fun of itself.
Some profound points about identity are almost made in the latter third of the movie, but once again it backs away from anything too deep with a quick joke. And then, once you've been lulled into a sense of complacency, suddenly they are carving off people's faces, and Clark's art manager JC transforms gradually into Hunter S Thompson. Is it a dream? A repeating, bad acid trip? Reality?
I won't give that away, except to say a bit of all three. This is an entertaining, if somewhat flawed, piece of independent cinema. I hope it develops the cult following it deserves.
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