Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2019: F*CK YOU ALL: THE UWE BOLL STORY

Despite any popular belief, nobody sets out to make a bad movie, but there may be an exception when it comes to the reviled filmography of Uwe Boll. The German filmmaker was quick to make a name for himself in the early 2000’s when, exploiting a certain German tax loophole, he was able to fund a series of highly controversial video-game movies that rewarded him the undesirable title of “worst director ever”, placing him alongside Ed Wood and Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer.

The Worst Director of All Time?

With Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog both fighting to restore the shattered reputation of the “video game film” this year (with the highly-reviled trailer for the latter not helping), it’s quite fitting that Sean Patrick Shaul’s hagiographic profile of the man that single-handedly tainted the genre would arrive at the same time. Subtly named Fuck You All: The Uwe Boll Story, Shaul may be the credited director but this is really the Uwe Boll Story by Uwe Boll, a gushing biography supported by a series of talking heads who voice their support of his work – frequent collaborators like Michael Pare, Keith David and Clint Howard are amongst the few to sing the praises of the man who is hated by so many.

House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne were some of the few titles that cemented Boll’s reputation, as well as his performative personality. He’s always been happy to call out Hollywood phoniness and his hatred for his detractors, which resulted in his infamous series of boxing matches against some of his more vocal internet critics. This outrageous behaviour prevents us from truly getting close with Boll within his own biography – it’s hard to tell when he’s acting or when he’s being honest, especially when the documentary mixes in clips from his video podcast, where he rants Alex Jones-style about the film industry.

There is also not enough done to identify exactly why he earned such a hideous reputation; straight to video auteurs like Albert Pyun or David DeCoteau who have made a countless number of films of equal sloppiness, but there was a missed opportunity in digging into the narrative/technical issues that plagued his filmography, which fuelled the indignation of video game fans unhappy with his callous treatment of their beloved properties.

Before Far Cry had found its “psychotic villain of the week” structure that is remixed for platforms every year, the idea of transforming the basic first-person-shooter into a generic action flick didn’t seem that heinous, but now as the line between the two art forms – video games and film – are blurring together, with full console title becoming practically feature-length motion pictures, this level of disregardment of video-game story translation would be straight-up prohibited today, both from the studios who own the properties and the irate audiences who’d be forced to consume them.

The Shock Master

The funny thing is, when Boll tries to be offensive – to shock with intent – his attempts fall flat, and its these intentionally comedic endeavours that actually become the closest glimpses of any sense of self-awareness, insinuating an intimacy that is vacant from any of his off-the-cuff interviews that round off this shapeless profile. One scene in particular – from the flagrantly titled Blubberella – which has two of his Ed Wood-esque circus of go-to actors, Lindsay Hollister and Brendan Fletcher, comes across as pathetic rather than provocative, where Boll himself, dressed as a dollar-store Hitler, casually drops both the “n and r words”, in-front of Fletcher who is in full black-face.

Shot in 2011, before Twitter decided to chokehold any film which dared to push any political envelopes, the scene felt like a definitive end to Boll’s reign as cinema’s enemy number one, before Tommy Wiseau entered the picture – both more likeable as a personality and with a singular, more quotable picture to draw upon – and like any meme/one minute of fame darlings, once the joke/person has become self-aware and willing to poke fun of itself, the fun is gone – which is true, despite it sounding like advice a well-intentioned parent would give their bullied child.

The closest he’s come to a comeback was his Letterboxd account that emerged this year, where screenshots of his vulgar reviews went viral (before the account was deleted), but now with both video game movies and “So bad it’s good” movies legitimised through Hollywood blockbusters, internet subcultures and irony poisoning, Fuck You All misinterprets Boll’s current legacy. In order to herald it’s main subject as a “real director”, the documentary veers towards more of a puff piece littered with strawman arguments – the idea of “at least he’s made a movie” is tossed off as a valid form of criticism – but is missing any form of real insight as to why Boll’s films didn’t work.

It’s simply not just technical sloppiness – pick up any current Steven Seagal or Bruce Willis DTV film featuring a gun on the cover and you’ll find the same level of general incompetency – but Boll’s atrociousness was unique for its time, and there was a real reason as to why both audiences and film critics were quick to make him a household name for the reasons he never intended.

House of the Dead infamously featured multiple dolly shots where the dolly track is clearly visible on the ground around the undead-slaying characters, which when mixed with awful acting, terrible effects and a spotty script, developed itself into a special type of shoddiness, the type that every snotty “bad film” Youtube personality hopes to rip apart for their ravenous subscribers.

Fuck You All: The Uwe Boll Story: Conclusion

Fuck You All: The Uwe Boll Story is a film that is as direct as its title, and despite its insistence on building straw-men arguments to deflect from the scrappiness of Boll’s well-known misfires, it’s interesting as a rare insight into what makes a man like him tick – or more suitably, how one keeps creating art when the whole world says you’re terrible, an unkind social pressure that has now been levied against the equally infamous Tommy Wiseau. Making a bad film is easy, but making one that people remember is even harder and just for that alone, the now-retired Boll definitely deserves his notoriety.

What is your opinion on Uwe Boll’s movies? Let us know in the comments!

Fuck You All: The Uwe Bolly Story will be playing at the 2019 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. Details about other films on the lineup, dates and session times can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vIbflVSLyA