New to DVD this week:
SHOOT TO MARRY
Director:
Steve Markle
World Premiere:
Slamdance 2020
Select Festivals:
Lighthouse, Canadian Film Fest
About:
A lonely filmmaker tries to find his perfect mate through the process of making a doc.
Filmmaker Steve Markle is in his early 40s, has never been married, and feels a bit like a loser. His solution: Set off across the US to ostensibly interview “interesting” women, while actually looking for a prospective girlfriend, and, hopefully, a wife. The result is a manufactured and overlong meta-doc/essay film meant to explore love and relationships, with Markle scrutinizing his own failings in a self-deprecating way. If one were to be generous, perhaps Markle’s film could be likened to a modern-day SHERMAN’S MARCH, but Ross McElwee’s project was a product of a different time. Ultimately, Markle seems harmless, but, then again, he’s the one telling the story, so it’s not completely clear how uncomfortable the women felt who he misled into being in his film. It’s understandable that some viewers might have a serious issue with the ethical lines the director oversteps, while others may find the often cringeworthy film to be fairly innocuous.