![]() But what am I doing wasting brain cells on what-could-have-been ideas for a movie that doesn’t appear to have paid audiences the same respect? Why not make Heidecker a real-world nuisance for once, actually entering the race? He could appeal to local celebrities for endorsements, or pretend to be upset when potential voters can’t place him as the Z-list host of a cable access show, in a state where name recognition helped elect the likes of Schwarzenegger, Eastwood and Sonny Bono. Nothing here feels like it took much effort, which is disappointing if only because “On Cinema” is such a consistently weird show. In another, his disgruntled “On Cinema” co-host Turkington tries to make the documentary about himself, trash-talking Heidecker to the crew (the closest thing to context that the film offers newbies) and comparing the candidate to that of the 1976 Disney classic “The Shaggy D.A.” In one, Heidecker prints out anti-corruption signs that say “We have a rat problem” and hangs one in the window of a local doughnut shop. But instead of upping the ante for “On Cinema’s” first foray into cinemas, the movie amounts to a few weak gags stretched out to feature length. If only “Mister America” managed to convince us, even for a single scene, that Heidecker had really mounted a political campaign, that might be funny (and more in keeping with Notarnicola’s work directing episodes of “Nathan for You”). But first, Heidecker has to get himself on the ballot. “This time it’s personal,” as countless crappy movies have quipped before. Now, loosely following the faux-doc approach hatched by the revolutionary “Borat” (where it was all but impossible to tell who was in on the joke), an imaginary filmmaker named Josh Lorton (an alias for “On Cinema” collaborator Eric Notarnicola) shadows Heidecker on his half-assed campaign, which appears primarily to be a chance to intimidate and disparage the incumbent DA, Vincent Rosetti (also fictional). ![]() The courtroom stunt inspired its own TV special, which ended with Heidecker threatening to run for district attorney, which brings us more or less up to speed. Over the show’s 11 seasons, Heidecker has done everything but dispense meaningful critical insight into movies - which is fine, putting him in such company as press-junket parody “Jiminy Glick in Lalawood” and hilariously inept celebrity interview series “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis,” only much, much less amusing.īetween episodes, Heidecker’s blowhard character had a son he named Tom Cruise (now “deceased”), started a heavy metal band, got hooked on a “nutritional” vaping system, burned down the Victorville Film Archive, launched a disastrous music festival, sold said vaping apparatus to 20 concertgoers (now “deceased”) and defended himself in a San Bernardino show trial - bizarro developments that found their way into “On Cinema” episodes. The show itself, which purports to be a sloppy cable access movie-review series, has morphed from a kooky podcast between Heidecker and co-host Gregg Turkington to a recurring TV segment on Adult Swim (an incubator for alternative comedy experiments, of which this is not even remotely the weirdest). Will he win? That is so not the point in this consistently obnoxious, only fans offering (be warned: if you haven’t been following along with Heidecker’s “On Cinema” shenanigans, this is not the place to start) whose very existence seems to be the punchline to a joke that goes, “Just how far are they going to take this?” Maybe that’s too literal an assessment of “ Mister America,” the latest oddball installment in the long-running performance-art curiosity that is “ On Cinema at the Cinema,” in which a character named Tim Heidecker (played by absurdist comedian/outsider artist Tim Heidecker) pretends to run for district attorney of San Bernardino, Calif. But in a world where Americans are getting punked on an almost daily basis by their TV-famous cretin in chief, do we really need a smug fake-news “documentary” making a mockery of the political system? If you are of voting age in the United States today, you know that stranger things have happened than someone like Tim Heidecker getting elected to public office.
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