One of his scenes is the shrewdest sendup of the documentary impulse. Actually, in this room here. He points to a window. And it's inside this actual room that I actually spoke with the actual Paul Simon. Idle's hilarious repetition apes the cult of in situ that is at the center of any documentary.
Actualities are the gospel of truth.
And in the 20th century, every time someone comes out with a new gospel it only takes the smart alecks of the world about five minutes to start parodying it, which is to say ripping it down. The two films follow different strains of the mockumentary form. It's more about the filmmakers than the film. And since the making of their film gets them lost in the woods and stalked by a mysterious something, it requires them to endure hunger, apathy, exhaustion, despair and, most of all, fear. Francis Ford Coppola Jr. Her two cohorts are sick of their trek through the woods, sick of being lost and scared and tired, sick especially of making a film.