'Welcome To Marwen,' By Way Of Hollywood Cliches And False Uplift
Robert Zemeckis adapts a gripping documentary about one trauma survivor's low-fi art project; the result is a "bloated and lifeless" drama that trivializes his experience.
The 2010 documentary introduced the world to Mark Hogancamp, an artist from upstate New York who uses dolls to stage eerie, violent dramas in a scale-model Belgian WWII town he's built in his backyard. Hogancamp does this as a form of therapy: A group of men beat him within an inch of his life after he revealed he enjoyed wearing women's shoes. The attack left him with brain damage so severe he lost all of his memories and much of his motor functions. In the land of Marwencol, Hogancamp
