Starring Eleni Kokkidou in an unforgettable performance, “Black Stone” follows the story of Charoula, an overprotective Greek mother on a mission to find her missing son amidst a whirlwind of government fraud allegations. With the aid of her disabled son Lefteris (played by Julio Katsis) and an eclectic ensemble including a Greek African taxi driver and a group of misfit antifa activists, Charoula embarks on a hilarious and heartfelt quest to uncover the truth and bring her son back home.

Written by seasoned screenwriter Ziad Semaan, known for his work on acclaimed projects like “Catch Me Daddy” and “Dead Mine,”, “Black Stone” promises to deliver a poignant exploration of family bonds, identity, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her own. With its unique blend of comedy, drama, and tragedy, this film is sure to captivate audiences and leave a lasting impression.

Don’t miss the chance to experience the magic of “Black Stone” on the big screen, followed by a special Q&A session with director Spiros Jacovides and writer Ziad Semaan. It’s a cinematic journey you won’t soon forget.

Also Read: Ten Great Mockumentaries To Watch

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One of the funniest films ever made This Is Spinal Tap is almost certainly the greatest mockumentary in existence. The film follows the band Spinal Tap on tour and the absolute ludicrousness that comes with it. Brilliant joke is followed by brilliant joke followed by brilliant joke followed by being second on the bill to a puppet show. While not the first mockumentary it is the film that cemented the idea of what a mockumentary is.

What We Do In The Shadows

A mockumentary that shines a light on the vampire community of New Zealand and discovers that as well as being terrifying monsters they can also be quite difficult housemates. The four vampire housemates live a life in the shadows, using human familiars, or rather, familiar, to handle their everyday needs and to lure people to their deaths.

The Rutles

The Rutles is a mockumentary about a band that in many ways bears a striking resemblance to The Beatles and the film charts their successes and failures. As is appropriate for a film made by Eric Idle it is incredibly silly and has a very Monty Python feel to it, the narrator is very much lifted straight out of Monty Python. The four Rutles are Dirk McQuickly, Ron Nasty, Barry Wom and Stig O’Hara, and those are by no means the best name with Leggy Mountbatten, a Brian Epstein parody, taking that prize.

The Nowhere Inn

Perhaps the oddest entry on this list – The Nowhere Inn, is a truly bizarre mockumentary, pop star St Vincent (or rather Annie Clark) asks a filmmaker friend to make a documentary/concert film. But the friend some realises that while St Vincent is an unconventional rock star weirdo the real Annie is not as compelling. So the friend asks Annie to make it more interesting and she agrees to be effectively become St Vincent 24/7. Which it turns out can have some negative consequences. The film plays with the idea of identity and reality and not just in terms of making films and documentaries.

I Blame Society

After another rejected project filmmaker Gillian has a new idea for a film – a documentary of her following the steps taken by serial killers as they lead up to their first kill. One of the first scenes is Gillian asking her friends to repeat a comment they had made about her – that she would be a good serial killer. She chooses a victim, does recon on their house, does research on murder…at some point it becomes clear that this is no longer someone simply staging this for an interesting documentary but something much darker.

District 9

By no means a mockumentary all the way through parts of the movie are made in this exact style,making a documentary of the arrival of the alien spaceship, how they are treated by people, “interviews” with academics and experts. It also has moments of fly-on-the-wall mockumentary as a film crew goes to follow Wikus as he issues the eviction notices to the aliens.

Documentary Now!

A mockumentary tv show created by Saturday Night Live legends Bill Hader and Fred Armisen that developed out of SNL sketches. Each episode is it’s own mockumentary on a different subject – such as the career of soft rock band The Blue Jean Committee and door to door globe salesmen. The first episode, Sandy Passage, is a parody of cult documentary Grey Gardens; the real documentary detailing the lives of two reclusive, upper-class women lives in poverty in a crumbling mansion, and the mockumentary captures the oddness of the original and makes it even funnier.

For Your Consideration

Another mockumentary from the team behind This Is Spinal Tap this time focused on Hollywood and “Oscar-buzz”. A documentary is being made of the making on a film called Home For Purim, a low budget drama about a Jewish family and in the convuluted way these rumours start one person suggests there’s talk of Oscars and that snowballs. With that information out there the actors, writers etc all obsess about the possibility of them getting an Oscar. The highlight of the film is the portrayals of Hollywood news programmes where Jane Lynch and Fred Willard play obnoxious and idiotic “journalists” with Fred Willard (in the 70s at this point) trying to look like he’s in his 20s.

Ghostwatch

One of the oddest things ever to appear on the BBC Ghostwatch was supposed to be a live broadcast paranormal investigation, utilising a range of real television presenters to play themselves, such as Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene. Parkinson stays in the studio while Greene visits a house that the residents claim to be haunted. It is a curious item of television history as it is not terribly convincing but was quite original at the time (I watched it as a child and was terrified).

Rec

The line between mockumentary and found footage genres can be a little muddled at times, but as Rec is construed as a documentary for Spanish television it counts. Angela is a reporter doing a documentary on local firefighters, going with them on calls, they arrive at an apartment building where it is believed a resident has fallen ill but is locked inside their apartment. When they get inside they are attacked by what can only be described as a zombie. They then quickly realise that the building has been quarantined by the authorities and any attempt to leave will have severe consequences.

Also Read: Director Deep Dive: Neill Blomkamp

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As I imagine is true for many people of my generation my introduction to legendary British rockers Spinal Tap was via The Simpsons where they featured as the first band Bart went to see in concert. Unsurprisingly the gig goes terribly. It was years later that I watched the film and understood who these people who had benefitted more than anyone from the collapse of communism really were.

“I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human than someone who doesn’t believe anything.”

The film was directed by Rob Reiner as part of a streak of films that contained Misery, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally and written by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, who play the central characters. The three stars have collaborated on many other films like Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and more. The three main actors have done went on to do a huge variety of things- Christopher Guest has made a series of films with a similar mockumentary style, played the six-fingered Count Rugen in The Princess Bride and is in actual fact the 5th Baron Hadon-Guest of Great Saling and would regularly attend the House of Lords. Michael McKean has been a very successful comedic and dramatic actor, most recently appearing in Better Call Saul as Chuck McGill and even more spectacularly as Grandpa Lou Pickles in the relaunched Rugrats. Harry Shearer has had an incredibly diverse career including voicing dozens of characters on The Simpsons including Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, like his colleagues he has been a successful actor but also written several books, released five solo comedy albums and been involved in many projects.

Looking at the rest of the cast of This Is Spinal Tap reveals an impressive array of talent with Ed Begley Jr, Fran Drescher, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Anjelica Huston and Fred Willard all appearing.

“Whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem.”

This Is Spinal Tap tells the story of the band Spinal Tap, a British heavy metal group, and is told via the medium of a mockumentary with Reiner playing the director, Marty DiBergi. The band have clearly peaked some time in the past and play to ever-smaller audiences. They have some of the worst album reviews of all time, one review of their Shark Sandwich album was simply two words: Shit Sandwich. The band’s core members are Nigel Tufnel (Guest), David St. Hubbins (McKean) and Derek Smalls (Shearer), with a rotating number of other musicians. Famously they have had a huge number of drummers – potentially eighteen according to wikipedia – who are all dead, presumed dead or playing jazz, which amounts to the same thing. These spectacular deaths include spontaneous combustion, choking on vomit (but not their own vomit), and a bizarre gardening accident the authorities didn’t want to investigate. The film chronicles their latest tour in which just about everything goes wrong.

It is hard to explain just how funny this film is. The preening self-importance of the band is constantly punctured by reality, or Marty, is glorious. Their stupidity and inability to grasp simple concepts is almost profound – the best example being Tufnel repeating “these go to 11” and failing to understand what the numbers represent. There is the embarrassment of being lower on the bill than a puppet show or the genuinely tragic scene of visiting Elvis’ grave to try and get inspiration and perspective.

“They’ve earned themselves a distinguished place in rock history as one of Britain’s loudest bands.”

Despite all of their personal and professional problems you can’t help but find them endearing in their own odd way and wanting them to succeed. Who knows how the past forty years have treated Spinal Tap and if they have performed more jazz odysseys or spent decades wandering around concert venues unable to find the stage, they will remain the only band who can go to 11.

Also Read: The Ingredients Of A Cult Classic

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The post The Spinal Tap Comeback Tour: The 40 Year Wait For A Sequel appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Watch the trailer below

Also Watch: Behind the Scenes “When The Screaming Starts”

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post New Trailer For Mockumentary Horror-Comedy “When The Screaming Starts” appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Also Read: Where Are All The Young Moviegoers?

The post Behind The Scenes: When The Screaming Starts appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Starring: Tracy Wiles, George Potts.

Writer: Matt Hynds

Director: Max Sobol

Watch “Meat is Murder” via the link below

Also Read: Sorry We Missed You: Film and the North

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