Did
the recent death of Tom Laughlin leave a vacancy for Elliot “White Lightning”
Scott to become the next white, working class martial arts star? No, absolutely
not. Although he aspires to be the Nova
Scotian Chuck Norris, Scott’s barely there career is only headed in one
direction—due south. Viewers will understand why after watching Jaret Belliveau
& Matthew Bauckman’s documentary Elliot
(trailer
here), which
premiered yesterday at the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival.
With
two scruffy DIY martial arts flicks under his belt, Scott is trying to complete
his most ambitious project to date, a beatdown entitled Blood Fight. Unfortunately,
the production has been plagued by problems that initially do seem to be
entirely his fault. Nevertheless, Linda
Lum, his increasingly impatient girlfriend-slash-producer is clearly starting
to have doubts about his action movie dreams and pretty much every other aspect
of their relationship.
Frankly,
Barney Fife had better moves than moves than Scott, but for a while viewers
will try to see him as noble dreamer, like an Ed Wood or Mark Borchardt, whose
ambitions exceed their talents. However,
this is not American Movie. While in
China with his acupuncture class, Scott lets his yellow fever run rampant. Aspects of his not so carefully constructed backstory
then start to unravel. In fact, by the time the documentary enters the third
act, Belliveau and Bauckman have pretty clearly turned against their subject,
which becomes quite a sight to behold.
Things
get so in-your-face uncomfortable, you have to wonder if it is all an extended meta-joke
in the tradition of I’m Still Here. Either way, it is dramatic stuff and a not
inconsiderable feat of filmmaking, shot on location in both Nova Scotia and
China. There is also a lot of humor in the film, mostly derived from Scott’s
sheer brazenness and lack of self awareness.