The New Indie Flick Marketing Model: *GASP!* It Involves MySpace [My Heart Is A Lonely, Deceitful, Idiot-Weapon]

I'm a sucker for a good title and the "My/The Heart is..." combo always proves compelling: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, My Heart is the Worst Kind of Weapon (<--most emo video on YouTube, hands down)... And now we have a new documentary (so new it's not even finished yet!) joining the heart-y ranks: My Heart is an Idiot.

According to the movie's MySpace, this is what the movie's about (or will be about, when it's finished):

My Heart Is An Idiot is a documentary about love from filmmakers David Meiklejohn and Davy Rothbart. Currently the film is in post-production, which means that David spends more time in front of a computer than out in sunlight with normal people.

Spanning two years and over a hundred cities, My Heart Is An Idiot captures Davy Rothbart's manic road-tripping lifestyle as he tours North America in a van promoting his magazine FOUND, an annual collection of discarded and recovered notes, letters, photographs, and ephemera. Along the way, Davy seeks advice on his tortured love life from a motley crew of characters (including Zooey Deschanel, Ira Glass, Newt Gingrich, Damali Ayo, and a giant white dog named Amadeus), and attempts to follow that advice, with alternately comical and tragic results.

Like Sherman's March doused in Maker's Mark, My Heart Is An Idiot is a cautionary kiss on the lips of Generation Irony. When everyone has a strategy, love is unbelievable.

While I'm not sure I completely buy the premise that your MySpace comments will inform the artistic direction of the piece (at least, Dear God! I hope not), I do think it's a clever way to virally market this little indie movie with an ever-updating showcase of gorgeous shots and likable, quirky banter from the hipster-haired director.

Check out Trailer Chunk #1 to see what I mean:



Cute, right? I could see this popping up on many a Netflix queue in the future. Though I'm not sure I'd call my heart an idiot. More like a five year old on a sugar binge who gets all wound up and then doesn't know when to stop. Now throw that on the cover of a book add some "In with bullet, out with hearts" graphics to the front, and I've got myself a best seller!