From the Vaults: Fake-umentaries

editor's note: this blast from the past elaborates a bit on part of yesterday's I'm Still Here Review, by explaining in detail what a Fake-umentary is and how it differs from a mockumentary.

After sampling the two discs of Knocked Up goodness, I feel there are two things worth sharing immediately:

1) If you liked Knocked Up in any way, either version is going to be worth your while (single or two disc, although it also breaks down into "single disc theatrical version" and "single disc unrated version", but I digress). Disc one was already packed with stuff I'm looking forward to watching, and that was before I got to disc two, which has different stuff I'm looking forward to watching. And the menus even have stuff you haven't seen (check the "languages" menu on disc one)

2) Judd Apatow is quite fond of the fake-umentary.

You might be asking "what is the difference between a mockumentary and a fake-umentary?", and I will explain that to you.

A mockumentary, like This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, or CSA: Confederate States of America, all take the conventions of a documentary and make fun of them within the body of the film, and while cleverly so, are also clearly aware of what they're doing.

A Fake-umentary is straight up bullshit told in a way that seems genuine and plays like a documentary no one knows is a total lie. Like the ones you'll find on Knocked Up.

(Serious Spoilers from here on out. Don't read them if you want to go in fresh)

If you haven't seen the Michael Cera / Judd Apatow clip on YouTube yet, do yourself a favor and don't watch it until you see the Knocked Up dvd. It's part of a larger fake-umentary called "Finding Ben Stone", which purports to be about Judd Apatow's difficulty with finding an actor to play the lead (which ultimately is Seth Rogen). The "doc" plays it straight through as Apatow explains why each actor he tried didn't work, and then gives us on-set footage of blow ups that seem like they could be staged, or they could be real. At first, anyway. The problem with "Finding Ben Stone" is that Apatow gives us too many actors that didn't make the cut, and by the time we get to Dodgeball's Justin Long, you're already thinking this is fishy, and that's not even close to the end. Still, there's some great stuff with Orlando Bloom, David Krumholtz, James Franco, and the aforementioned Cera.

Much more convincing is "Directing the Director", which pretends that Universal didn't trust Apatow enough after The 40 Year Old Virgin and insist that Capote's Bennett Miller come on set and keep an eye on him. Normally, this would scream "bullshit", not merely because we've seen Peter Jackson and Bryan Singer pull this on King Kong and Superman Returns (and Edgar Wright on Hot Fuzz, for that matter), but Miller's reasons are legitimate, and the way he's portrayed wandering around the set and politely offering notes to actors seems like the real deal. If you know that Apatow is fond of improvising and letting the camera roll, then the disagreement the two of them have over camera movement is credible from both sides. Only towards the end do they show their hands, and the final argument is still gold:

"You know what? I have fucking nightmares that the director of Capote is going to show up and fuck with my movie, and here you are!"

There's at least one more on the disc, which if you haven't watched "Finding Ben Stone" will almost sound believable, involving an actor who left the movie before production began to make a Woody Allen film.

What's impressive is that they all play it straight in every one of the fake-umentaries, and so do the cast of the film. There's no winking to the camera or way to knowing comment, only people who genuinely seem to be involved in the moment. I have no idea if Apatow plans to continue doing these, but there's a chance some viewers might watch them and not catch the joke for a long time, if at all.

That, my friends, is a fake-umentary.