At the start of Kung Fu Elliot, the outstanding and crazy-entertaining documentary that bears his name, Elliot “White Lightning” Scott expresses his life’s purpose: to “make Canadians go, ‘Wow, we can have an action hero.’” He wants to be Halifax’s answer to Jackie Chan.
Not so fast, Elliot. You’re not even Halifax’s answer to Jackée Harry.
As co-directors Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau inform us, their subject’s first and second steps toward that lofty goal are the homemade feature films They Killed My Cat and Stalker and the Hero. Both exist to showcase the martial-arts skills of their — how you say? — unconventional (and unemployed) leading man. Both were directed by his longtime, live-in girlfriend, Linda Lum, who appears to be operating the digital point-and-shoot camera under emotional duress and with a saint’s patience. Both are hocked to unimpressed shoppers on the sidewalk outside CD Heaven. (You know CD Heaven, right? Dude, it’s right next door to The Curling Store!)
In theory, Bauckman and Belliveau were tagging along to document the making of Elliot’s latest no-budget bid toward superstardom, Blood Fight. However, shooting of the schlump’s would-be epic is erratic at best. He spends more time trying to convince strangers of his MOD DVD greatness and bragging to them about his championship trophies in kickboxing, sport of the future. If he can trick the more gullible into an autograph and/or a photograph they didn’t ask for, all the better for his unjustifiably enormous ego!
With Kung Fu Elliot, the obvious point of comparison is Chris Smith’s perfect American Movie, also following a regular guy with big-screen aspirations and little talent to back them up. Whereas the delusional underdog Mark Borchardt was someone you wanted to root for — and did — Elliot Scott is merely delusional, and that takes the documentary into dark territory viewers will not expect. Don’t let anyone tell you what that is; be highly unsettled for yourself. —Rod Lott