Leave it to Troma to release something like this…
To understand the films in this collection you must understand Dennis Woodruff. However, this isn’t as easy as looking him up on Wikipedia as he doesn’t have a page there. He has his own web site, but it doesn’t say too much about him. And while he has an imdb page, the three films included here aren’t listed there.
However the back of the DVD says this: “Woodruff is the man who sold over 100,000 copies of his various movies out of the trunk of his famous art cars. He is an icon in Los Angeles and is a known celebrity worldwide.” So hopefully that gives a small idea about this man.
In the first film Spaceman (78 min.), Woodruff writes/directs/produces and stars as the titular character. The film is basically Woodruff wandering around talking to people in Los Angeles most of whom don’t seem to realize they are in a movie. Whenever the camera is on Woodruff you can tell he’s just holding the camera and pointing it at himself, often times you can see the camera reflected in his space-glasses. Also, there are several scenes where the film is sped up to hurry a scene along. The film doesn’t have much in the way of plot. It actually reminds me a lot Werner Herzog’s The Wild Blue Yonder. Spaceman attempts to make social commentary on a variety of topics, most of this done when a woman interviews Spaceman. Though it’s not quite as thought provoking as Herzog’s film.
The second film is Obsession: Letters to David Lynch (69 min.) (2008). In this documentary Woodruff attempts to land himself a role on a David Lynch film in order to become a huge success. And I guess because it’s a film about trying to find Lynch, Woodruff does some extra strange things in this film with the audio and visuals. Throughout the film he wanders all over L.A. from AFI to various churches trying to track down the church Lynch goes to. He talks to all sorts of people from homeless people to random people on the streets to friends and actual actors including Kevin Kelly, who has been in three Lynch films, and even Cloris Leachman! It starts to feel like he’s stalking Lynch and even his friends tell him to stop obsessing over it and stop going over to Lynch’s house uninvited. At one point he claims to have watched Inland Empire 36 times in one week and that alone terrifies me! (Check my original review if you don’t believe me.) This film shows more about the true Dennis Woodruff and serves as a fascinating look at obsession (didn’t mean to invoke the title there). And I can’t even mention the ending without out ruining it, but it’s kind of awesome.
The collection ends with LA (87 min.), which sort of serves as a documentary about the life and times of Woodruff. In the beginning he claims to have been thrown out of a moving car as kid where rolled down a hill, found himself underneath the Hollywood sign and ended up being raised by wolves. And knowing that absolutely isn’t true, it makes you question everything this film tells you. He is also obsessed with an invading alien race he calls the Ant People. This film also winds up being the least interesting of the three, coming off as very obviously self-serving and lacks that certain something that the first two films have. If nothing else it shows he has a passion for film and will never give up on his goal.
I’ll leave you with one final thought: I get A similar feeling watching Woodruff’s films as I do when listening to Daniel Johnston’s music, if that makes any sense. I also feel that while watching his films certainly is an interesting experience, I think that someone else making a documentary about him might be a little more interesting.
The films are presented in 1.33:1 full screen format and Dolby Digital Stereo Sound. This was shot on a very cheep camera and looks very low budget. All the sound is recorded in camera and varies in quality throughout the film.
There are no special features that focus on Woodruff, but Troma crams a bunch of their own stuff on here including Troma T+A, Radiotion Parade and trailers for Toxic Avengers, Class of Nuke ‘Em High and Poltrygeist.
The Dennis Woodruff Collection Vol. 1 is certainly unlike anything you have ever seen. Whether you think that to be a good thing or a bad thing in another question. However, being that I’ve been obsessed with outsider filmmaker lately like Tommy Wiseau and James Nguyen so this was right up my alley. And just by me dropping these names should give you an idea about the caliber of filmmaking I’m talking about here.
Troma Films presents The Dennis Woodruff Collection Vol. 1. Written, Directed and Starring by: Dennis Woodruff. Running time: 233 min. on two discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: June 14, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.
