'Baghead's' gentle poke at indie films, actors has 'Blair Witch' feel

No one connected with making "Baghead" need hide his face, the way the mortified fans of the New Orleans Saints once did, under brown paper bags. But moviegoers watching this film may want to have a passing knowledge of "The Blair Witch Project" or the culture of struggling actors desperate for even the most modest success.

As "Baghead" opens, four actors are mesmerized by a film made for less than $1,000, seen at an underground film festival that looks equally low-budget. The only way they can get into the after-party is to try to sneak in, and the only way they may get feature roles is to write them, and that's what they decide to do.

Matt (Ross Partridge) and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Catherine (Elise Muller), along with pal Chad (Steve Zissis) and a young Midwestern transplant named Michelle (Greta Gerwig) repair to a borrowed cabin to write a movie.

They drink. They flirt. They play. They spar. They stall. They vomit after drinking too much.

And then one of them sees an intruder wearing a bag over his -- or is it her? -- head. And they're off to the stranded-in-the-woods-with-a-potential-killer races.

Directors-writers-brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, whose movie "The Puffy Chair" was an indie sensation, return with "Baghead," which boasts a "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"-style poster -- boy, girl, boy, girl, but with bags over their heads.

It's perhaps more clever than almost anything in the movie, except for this speech by Chad, who looks like a cross between Andy Kaufman and John Belushi, to Matt: "You get all the (expletive) chicks. You got Elvis hair. I mean, look at me, dude. I've got nothing. You're like Michael Jordan, I'm like Bill Laimbeer."

Scripted by the brothers or improvised by Zissis? Could be either, given the directors' philosophy that actors say what they want, as long as it feels real.

"Baghead," with its you-are-there intimacy, is a gentle send-up of indie movies and actors at the bottom of the food chain. A little more exploration of the characters before they're bundled off to the cabin might have been in order, and the conversational knife is a little too dull for all the angst and alcohol percolating through the cabin.

But the filmmakers' affection for these characters, no matter how childish or clueless or dangerously clever, is evident.

Rating: R for language, some sexual content and nudity.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri(at)post-gazette.com.)

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