4/5
I went into this movie knowing nothing about it except the title, and was probably better off that way. It was actually finished ten days before the festival, so far has no distributors buying it (as far as I know, since we got to see it with the potential buyers), and there is virtually no information about it anywhere. But it is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and also one of the best this festival. Personally, I think it is unlikely that it will get any kind of major release and you will probably never actually see this movie unless you stumble upon it by chance, but I will write my review anyway. So, on to the synopsis. It is actually a mockumentary, although you don't know that for certain until the end, about Dan Butler, "the great supporting actor," who wants to do a stage play about Karl Rove, the ultimate supporting actor in the world stage, and ends up falling in love with him. What a great idea!
Karl Rove, I Love You is a hilarious, hilarious movie. I laughed so much during this movie. It had an incredibly inventive and original idea that was carried out flawlessly. It draws you into the story. Perhaps you too might fall in love with Karl Rove, his chubbly smiling face and sparkling blue eyes, as they float endless photos and video of him in the movie. Technically, it is no masterpiece, so I won't even try to defend it on those grounds, but it's such a clever idea with amazing characters you end up loving (yes, including Karl Rove). I loved how it pushed the idea a little too far, but then came back to reality so you never really knew for certain that it was all fake until the end credits.
I absolutely hated the cinematography and shoddy DV camerawork. It was ugly, amateurish shooting, which is what they wanted and worked well with the idea, but I don't care. I hate ugly movies. The editing, on the other hand, was quite good. It cut out the unnecessary parts and kept it succinct and to the point. The acting was fine, I guess--it's a mockumentary, what acting is there gonna be? The music was effective overall, but sometimes a bit too melodramatic. The ending was a bit slow in tying up loose ends and bringing closure. Also, unlike The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects, there is no one moment at the end where you think, "Wow, it's all fake! This isn't a real documentary! I've been had!" (In fact, I knew quite early on that it wasn't real because of the way they shot one of the scenes near the beginning, and it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the movie--so don't get all up on my case about "ruining" it for you or whatever.) Anyway, I enjoyed this movie very much and highly recommend it, although I doubt you will ever get to see it.
IMDb link: Unavailable at this time