I like to believe we can laugh at ourselves. You know, take a step back and realize that yes, our art is important, but maybe the people around us see something completely different. Writer-director Samuel Lodato does just that with his indie mockumentary, Remi Milligan: Lost Director. Our tale opens with a quick overview of the life and work of the late avant-garde indie filmmaker, Remi Milligan, who, in his father’s words, was praised for making a film that “meant something to someone.” Born in North London, Michael Benedetto (Yoshi Barrigas) wanted to become a prolific filmmaker by changing his name to Remi Milligan. Like most indie filmmakers, Remi employed his friends as cast and crew to bring his vision to the silver screen, but Remi came on the scene just as film began transitioning to streaming.
Remi’s work included the cult classic Killer Pencil, about a man, played by Remi, being hunted by a possessed pencil. Its backstory is quite elaborate. Greek Connection is a thriller that takes on the issue of Greek prostitutes being smuggled into London. There’s a film musical, Song and Dance at Guantanamo Bay, about theater kids arrested as terrorists. Finally, there is his epic, Satsuman. It’s an epic hybrid stop-motion animated film featuring its main character who is half-human and half-Satsu…Yeah, I don’t know either.
Remi Milligan: Lost Director falls right into our What The F**k category. Yes, what the f**k is this? I always have fun with the WTF film. We’re all familiar with the mockumentary. What I haven’t told you is that Remi is dead, but many, including his friends and family, believe he is alive. Remi’s story is told through first-person interviews, countless hours of footage by a friend who served as his video-biographer from the start, and clips from these truly insane films Remi “made.”
“…overview of the life and work of the late avant-garde indie filmmaker, Remi Milligan…”
The best part of the film is Remi’s film. As I think about how to describe them, I can’t help but realize how meta this discussion will become. Writer/director Samuel Lodato, along with Yoshi Barrigas, has created this weirdly fascinating character in Remi. Through the testimonials, we get deeper into Remi’s lore as the film follows the life of an obsessed artist who can barely hold onto reality.
Another area where Remi Milligan: Lost Director succeeds is in the interviews. I’ve seen many indie mockumentaries, and the interviews always seem overly improvised. Their main problem is that the interviewees tend to just ramble, looking for the joke or feeling the need to say silly things for the “comedy.” Here, there is such great control over the testimonials. They feel authentic to the character and always speak to the subject at hand.
The humor in Remi Milligan: Lost Director is really dry. That said, the highlights for me were the Song and Dance and Guantanamo Bay musical number (awfully good) and the evolution of this weird, Satsuman…whatever that is. In the end, this is just this odd little WTF story, that’s absurd and wonderful all at the same time.
For more information, visit the official Remi Milligan: Lost Director site.
"…absurd and wonderful all at the same time."
