August
27
Parlez Vous Mumblecore? DIY Directors Take Matters Into Their Own Hands
[Posted by Peter Debruge]
What is "Mumblecore"? A fair question, considering that even the most obscure-cinema-savvy film buffs are still playing catch-up with the group of scrappy shoestring pics that have earned a generation of indie filmmakers their nickname.
The group consists of such helmers as Andrew Bujalski, Joe Swanberg and the Duplass brothers, known for their low-budget, handheld, thinly-veiled self-portraits (imagine Once without all the Frames songs). While not necessarily autobiographical, the films afford an offhand insight into late-twentysomething slackerdom, reflecting none of the “Hollywood” demand for happy endings or closure.
I stumbled across the Mumblecore movement (a phrase that suggests greater organization and strategy that its members actively pursue) quite by accident at Sundance a few years back in the form of The Puffy Chair, from Jay and Mark Duplass. The movie basically served as a feature-length version of what, two years later, would become the norm on YouTube and other video-hosting sites.
Last year, Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation opened to positive notices from New York’s more esoteric critics, including Dennis Lim (author of a recent New York Times profile). The trailer itself featured Lim's semi-endorsement, “A master of the mixed message and a veritable sculptor of dead air,” which sounds about as appealing as a hipster funeral — and yet, somehow says everything about their approach (precisely what after the jump).
From the outside, it may seem like the idle navel-gazing of a bunch of middle-class white boys, but these movies are not to be dismissed. Several of the filmmakers have scored legitimate gigs (by which I mean decent-paying “industry” employment). The Duplass brothers are developing material for another set of sibs, Chris and Paul Weitz, and Bujalski is said to be adapting Indecision for Scott Rudin. Just last week, a quorum of Mumblecore players (along with South by Southwest film fest programmer and personal college chum Matt Dentler) convened to discuss the movement at the Apple Store in Soho, aptly titled "Generation D.I.Y."
But could the exposure backfire on these admittedly lo-fi productions? That’s Indiewire contributor Anthony Kaufman’s take:
If these films are hyped, they may be doomed. One of the joys of stumbling upon a charming or sophisticated or funny low-budget "mumblecore" film is just that, stumbling upon it, whether given to you on DVD by a friend or the filmmaker himself or walking into one of them unknowingly at a film festival.
I admit, much as I loved it, I was reluctant to recommend Puffy Chair to most of my friends, fearing they wouldn’t “get it” — but this seems like little more than elitism on my part. With studio backing, their brand of emotional honesty could revolutionize the “romcom” genre (a bit on non-Variety slanguage recently retired here at the paper).
So take this as a full-scale endorsement. Dentler posted a funny “sell out” spoof on his blog (in which Google makes a YouTube-size bid to buy out the budding filmmakers), which may have inspired Premiere.com critic Glenn Kenny’s defense of the group. As Kenny puts it:
Insofar as I understand the term, “selling out” means betraying your own principles for profit. It does not mean betraying the untested principles of a portion of your early audience that, for some particular and likely pathological reason, believes it owns you.
I couldn’t agree more. When you consider the number of directors coming at the biz from the musicvid and commercial arenas, it’s hard to begrudge these legitimate storytellers their eventual success. I don’t think shooting on film or hiring a steadycam will lessen the edge one iota (although test screenings and studio feedback will certainly change what appears to be a fairly casual work aesthetic).
If you’re looking for somewhere to start, why not catch Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs, which opened Friday in New York, or his earlier film, LOL, which hits DVD tomorrow? As Kaufman points out, the hunt and resulting feelings of discovery are part of the pleasure. Get in now and say you knew them when.
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The novel that Bujalski is allegedly adapting is called INDECISION.
Posted by: Karina | August 28, 2007 at 04:29 AM
Thanks! I corrected it in the text.
Posted by: Peter Debruge | August 28, 2007 at 11:18 AM