Matt Barats Sets Sail with Anchors Aweigh
Still from Anchors Aweigh. Photo courtesy of the Calgary International Film Festival.
There’s no one who is using the documentary form in a comedic way better today Matt Barats. It began with 2020’s Here We Have Idaho (which documents “Matt” returning to his home state, only to be displaced in a trailer due to his brothers and “their blonde wives” taking up all of the rooms) and continued with 2023’s Cash Cow (which documents “Matt” spending time in Montana living in a tent, as he waits for the national broadcast of his Domino’s Pizza commercial to air in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020). Now, Matt Barats completes his self-described “Housing Crisis Trilogy” with Anchors Aweigh, an absurd docu-fiction triumph that details “Matt” after getting dumped by his 25-year-old girlfriend Megan (played expertly by Serena Profaci), he rents out a sailboat and watches DV Camera tapes that he recorded when he was a teenager and reflects on the choices he has made in his life to get to this point.
I put “Matt” in quotes, as while Matt Barats (who directs/writes/stars in all three films) is using his own name and using actual moments in his life, it is a very fictionalized, comedic version of himself, similar to how Tim Heidecker goes by his own name in On Cinema, even though Tim is very far from his crazed On Cinema persona. All of Matt Barats’ films involve heavy narration, brilliant uses of repetition (for one example, in Anchors Aweigh, the phrase “I’m hornier than a ten-dick dog” gets funnier every time it is used) and a blending of real life and fiction, that in turn becomes a brilliant parody of self-involved documentaries where the filmmaker becomes the centrepiece of the film. Matt Barats, during the Q&A for Anchors Aweigh, described his thought process for writing the jokes for his character as “What is an idiot's most profound thought?” which is a perfect way to put it.
As a long-time fan of Matt Barats’ work (not just his trilogy of films, but also the Reveries series he has made with Anthony Oberbeck and Graham Mason, and terrific acting roles in Never Change! and The Scout), I will admit I am in the bag for him. The rhythms of his narration had me laughing super hard throughout Anchors Aweigh’s 71 minute runtime. It’s the feeling of once you lock into someone’s comedic persona, practically every word coming out of their mouth makes you laugh, and I will admit that is where I am at with Matt Barats’ work, which certainly continues with Anchors Aweigh. As a film, it is another great step-up, as the use of the teenage camcorder footage is brilliantly assembled, featuring Young Matt’s sincere love of early Family Guy and Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song.” As someone who also did school reports on my own favourite comedy television shows, I found those videos very relatable, and I think most audiences who place themselves back to that time in their life will be able to relate as well.
Anchors Aweigh is a brilliant skewering of a self-involved loser who can’t let go that also becomes weirdly moving by the end of it, for reasons I won’t spoil. The orchestral score by Simon Hanes (who also scored Cash Cow) is truly stellar and propels the film forward in a nice way. I also must shout out the wonderfully immersive sound design work from Matthew Giordano (who also worked on the Reveries series and Anthony Oberbeck’s directorial debut Little Doors).
Anchors Aweigh won’t be for everyone, some people will not understand that Matt Barats is playing a character and just think this is some guy making a film obsessed about why his young girlfriend dumped him. That is fine though, this film isn’t for them. The best comedies are the ones who find a devoted, passionate audience with a singular tone. I think of the work of Chris Elliott, someone who had his share of critics who claimed he played annoying characters, but for Elliott’s legion of fans (for which I am one), he played some of the funniest characters we have ever seen. This is the lineage Matt Barats falls under and I cannot wait to see where he will take us next.