Indie roots need more flavor

JUMP CUT (1993)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

After watching five minutes of "Jump Cut," a pseudo-documentary about the making of a film that details the making of a film, I was ready to throw in the towel and watch something else. This is not a normal reaction of mine but this film almost made me say something Larry David once said before performing stand-up for a crowd: "Uhhhh, no." But I do try to give every film a chance (Lord knows I've tried with the comedies of Yahoo Serious). The opening of "Jump Cut" features three guys with their hands tied from a ceiling. Why? I don't know. Next we have several endless shots of a van traveling through the highway while we hear a family squabbling and the daughter pleads to use the bathroom. This goes on for an eternity until the family finally pulls over at a gas station, at which point the married couple do some more squabbling while the daughter says she doesn't have to use the bathroom. The van pulls out and then the daughter pleads again to pee!

After a nerve-wracking, mind-numbing, dreary opening, "Jump Cut" actually improves when we learn that all this is part of the making of a movie. We know this because the writer-director Lawrence Gardner, who plays David Larson (the director of this movie), breaks the fourth wall and tells us. Most of "Jump Cut," which is seemingly shot in 16mm color film that resembles some 1970's flick, is about David Larson trying to make a movie for $350,000. He's got filmmaking experience and has one or two less than viable connections in the industry. He procures help from Jack (Roy Conrad), a wannabe entrepreneur who make a living collecting trash from drive-ins and restaurants, whom David selects as a producer. The cameraman is Jack's brother, Glenn (Peter Petty), who tries to create art with metal and works alongside Jack (though these two hardly look like brothers). Before trying to make a movie, they try to find work filming projects on the side and most go disastrously wrong.

Much of "Jump Cut" features the minutiae of shooting a film and Murphy's Law - what can go wrong will go wrong. I enjoyed watching Lawrence Gardner, a laid-back, patient man who is trying to make the best of everything. Roy Conrad is very funny as the rather impatient producer who also tries his best to get financing, often to no avail. Peter Petty is pretty much a disaster as the lunkhead of a cinematographer.

The pleasures are few in "Jump Cut" - some of it is drawn out, rather dreary and is a little painful to watch (especially those opening scenes). Some scenes stand out - I love the shooting of a commercial where the lead actor does nothing but complain. I have seen better films about making films but I would not totally count out "Jump Cut." See it just once, and you'll like it a little more if you have ever been involved in the making of a low-budget film. But like shooting any film, it is a bit of a pain to get through it.

Footnote: "Jump Cut" was actually made in 1987 but it seemingly got no distribution until it was picked up by Peacock Pictures in 1993, a UK company, and eventually was released on DVD in 2003. According to imdb, writer-director Lawrence Gardner disappeared and never made another film.