"Mad Props" - Film Review
For most films, I like to keep myself out of the review. It’s part of the critic’s job to go beyond themselves and look at the movie’s merits. Mad Props makes that a little difficult because, immediately, Mad Props makes it clear that this is a documentary for movie lovers, by movie lovers. Tom Biolchini is a movie prop collector, and over the course of the documentary, he goes on a journey around the world to talk to other prop collectors. Why do they collect? Are these props art? Should there be a more concerted effort in preserving these artifacts of film history?
mad props
What Mad Props speaks to is a feeling that is known to any moviegoer. When you watch a movie, whether it be alone or with other people, that film is now intrinsically tied to a specific moment. Something happens when the lights go down and the screen flickers to life that elevates a movie beyond itself. A movie becomes an experience. My memory is terrible, but you mention any film I’ve ever seen and I can tell you who I saw it with, where I was, and how I was feeling. My entire life can be tracked by movies. In 2020, I wrote about how deeply intertwined those darkened rooms are with people I love and memories I hold dear. Watching Mad Props was like listening to long-lost friends I didn’t even know I had.
Movies are an incredible artform. More than paintings or sculptures, so many things need to go right for a film to not only be made, but to be one of the greats. One of those cultural touch points we can all look to that unites us in a world that’s feeling more divided by the day. There are films that are universal, that are recognized no matter what language we speak. These movies have the ability to remind us of our youth, of teenage crushes, or of staying up too late to watch a movie we knew our parents wouldn’t approve of. The props at the heart of these films are often what endear us to the films. You can’t watch Indiana Jones without thinking of his iconic hat or whip, and you also can’t help but wonder what it would be like to hold those items in your hands. It’s a dreamy concept because those things are larger than life. They don’t belong to a single person, but to everyone who watched the film and now holds their experience as part of their life story.
mad props
Mad Props is a love letter to the unsung, essential aspects of filmmaking. It’s an hour-and-a-half of our de facto narrator, Biolchini, geeking out over lightsabers from Star Wars, clothing from Blade Runner, the dead pilot corpse from Castaway, and whatever other oddities he comes across in his travels. For as much as it is about the joy of seeing these famous props in the flesh, Mad Props understands that they’re just objects and their greater purpose is in creating a community. None of these collectors want to lock their props away and hide them from the world. They want to show them off to other people who get it, to share in the joy of nostalgia.
Filmmaking, and every component that goes into the finished product, is art that deserves to be preserved. As Susan Neal, the executive director of the Gilcrease Museum, mentions toward the end of the documentary, these objects transcend their role in films. For as long as humans have existed, we have used media to connect with one another and make sense of our time on this planet. Mad Props is a loving ode to the things that bring us together and spark childlike joy within us. Props are a means of tangibly holding a memory that goes beyond ourselves. They’re a piece of history, a piece of art, and a piece of humanity in the palm of your hand.
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