Slamdance 2025: ‘American Theater’|‘Coroner to the Stars’
The idea of being “cancelled” in today’s culture has resulted in a lot of unrest and retaliation from individuals who feel wrongly accused or imprisoned by the label. In documentary filmmaking, it presents a fascinating uphill battle, as empathy is a significant component of making subjects interesting enough to sustain a feature-length film. Fitting within the celebration of alternative voices that the Slamdance Film Festival has always admired, Nicholas Clark and Dylan Frederick’s American Theater follows a “cancelled” theatre director as he spearheads a musical retelling of the 1692 Salem witch trials. Without much counterbalance to its conservative cast of artists, American Theater’s embedded presentation of artists trying to make an overt political statement through art is surprisingly duller than infuriating. While it feels reminiscent of films like Chris Smith’s American Movie, its occasionally irritating lead and the filmmakers’ overwhelming commitment to impartiality leave an insubstantial commentary on our current society in its wake.
The major hurdle is that everyone is a caricature of Trump followers, but it does not spill over into humour as many times as it seems like it would. Accused of racist and abusive behaviour, gay theatre director Brian Clowdus now surrounds himself with like-minded artists as he attempts to rebuild his career and navigate accusations that he believes are untrue. While the production of the Salem witch trials takes up most of his time, Clowdus is also trying his hand at running for the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican Party candidate. Unfortunately, Clark and Frederick never interrogate Clowdus in any meaningful fashion, and his work outside the theatre is more of a side story than anything else. This is odd because it is anything but, and the refusal to confront Clowdus on his ideals and how they directly impact both the gay community and the arts is a glaring omission that seems far more fruitful than just watching people put on a production in a bubble.
The bubble Clowdus creates and inhabits is the inherently interesting concept at the heart of American Theater. Taken at face value, it’s a film about people getting the work done regardless of their situation or circumstance. However, the delusion and unwillingness to look inward makes Clowdus an engaging subject where he can skirt the repercussions of his actions by pretending there are none. He can find validation within a community of Republicans and be emboldened by an echo chamber. This is textbook behaviour from those who have been “cancelled.” What is disappointing is that Clark and Frederick’s approach to critiquing Clowdus is to let him sabotage himself with his own remarks, but because his ideals are so common with all of the other subjects of the documentary, American Theater struggles to say anything meaningful. It’s just that loud echo chamber allowed to run rampant and uninterrupted for 83 minutes. Which could have yielded something more incisive and potentially humorous in its larger-than-life characters, but it never overcomes the uphill battle.
The tenacity and determination of individuals to put in solid work regardless of external pressure shines through in Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno’s Coroner to the Stars. An overview of the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner that focuses on its former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, Hethcoat and Ideno’s documentary starts from a morbid, sensationalist place before digging deeper into the trials and tribulations that individuals in that position face. While it may not be as insightful as it could be and sometimes feels brief in its discussions, Coroner to the Stars covers an interesting subject matter with an eccentric star at its heart.
Dubbed the “coroner to the stars” because of the high-profile individuals that come through its doors, the Medical Examiner in LA endures more scrutiny than other counties’ offices simply because everyone wants to know how someone famous died. Noguchi’s tenure saw him conducting autopsies on celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, and John Belushi, to name a few, with the results of those autopsies having the potential to diminish the legacy of those people posthumously. There’s a slight conversation to be had about the frailty of celebrity in the wake of one’s death and the ability to tarnish a reputation simply by disseminating facts. The probing of how celebrity status can influence people to behave differently, especially in the mundane, is an interesting topic that just approaching makes the film better. It’s the most potent idea presented in Coroner to the Stars, but less prominent than the person conducting the autopsies and providing the reports.
There’s an underwhelming dissection of the thematic content in Coroner to the Stars, made more evident by the frequent reminders that Noguchi is the film's star more than the medical examination process. Noguchi’s reputation was one of sensationalism—someone who wanted the spotlight on him and enjoyed having the last word on a celebrity’s reputation—so it only makes sense that the documentary focuses more on him than the job itself. Interviews spliced throughout the documentary give an understanding of the legacy Noguchi has left behind, but also how his background as a Japanese immigrant created an easy target on him when he ruffled feathers with the results of an autopsy. It’s a straightforward biopic that is told plainly, but Coroner to the Stars does have other issues on its mind. It brings in familiar faces like George Takei to help illuminate what Noguchi represents by persevering through the storm, and ultimately comes off as a sincere celebration of Noguchi that tries to understand both sides of his life.
