Operation Avalanche

"Operation Avalanche" is an inventive grab-bag of a film, a movie about making a movie that no one was supposed to know was a movie at all.

That's one small step for Apollo 11 hoaxers, one giant leap for Matt Johnson.

Part mockumentary, party black comedy, part action-adventure and part cinematic dare, the movie is a bizarre, engrossing creation that will leave audiences either delighted or baffled, though never bored.

A send-up like this works far better for a few minutes on the small screen (see Documentary! or Drunk History); at feature length it becomes a stylistic exercise, like a kid mugging for the camera through an Instagram filter.

Ingeniously using his low budget to address his ambitions, Johnson has directed, co-written (and starred in) a unique science-fiction film.