Mumblecore, Hardcore Apathy
Submitted Fri, Apr 09, 2010 12:03 by marina
Between the increasing appearances of "omega males" in popular films and the recent buzz surrounding actress Greta Gerwig, a culture of inarticulate and nonprofessional apathetics are creating what major newspapers refer to every decade or so as a youthquake in film. This time around, the movement is something called mumblecore, filled with individuals who just don't know how to express themselves without being awkward, or who just don't care: "Neither rebels nor bohemians, they remain stuck in a limbo of semi-genteel, moderately hip poverty," David Denby described last year in his NEW YORKER piece, aptly titled "Youthquake: Mumblecore". Unfortunately, terms such as these often typify the very sensational, intellectual, or careerist culture that the youth are resisting in the first place, via apathy, and yet for the sake of clarity, perhaps, the term "mumblecore" has endured.
The typical mumblecore film is even more low budget than a typical independent film, as even professional actors and crews can cost millions. Rather, mumblecore films can cost as low as fifteen hundred dollars to make. Denby describes what this entails: "The films are usually shot with a digital camera, in somebody’s apartment, and run about eighty minutes," he writes. "The filmmaking ensemble gathers around a writer-director-editor figure; they act in the movie, add ideas or lines of dialogue, write music, play or sing onscreen. Few people get paid much, if they get paid at all."
The first mumblecore film was Andrew Bujaski's FUNNY HAHA, a comedy of manners released in 2002. The film follows a 23-year old woman named Marnie in the midst of a post-college rut. Marnie is dejected, but not passionate or angry, nor does she share the same revolutionary ambitions of other depressed youths who arrived before her. "The young people in the quickly made Godard movies of the sixties dreamed of becoming gangsters, thieves, revolutionaries—characters, so to speak, in a movie. The studs and the female 'superstars' of the Warhol films played at Hollywood glamour while enacting the ceremonies of decadence and self-destruction. Mumblecore disdains flamboyance; its reigning mood is diffidence," Denby says.
If you're interested in finding out more about mumblecore, Film Fresh carries a number of staples from the genre, such as:
In this road film, an indie-rocker decides to clear his head by driving across the country. His mission: taking a gift to his father, namely, a large purple chair. With his girlfriend and his brother along for the trip, the stage is set.
Alan's quest for success in music and love is hampered by one thing -- himself. Centering on Alan's half-hearted romancing of radio DJ Sara and promoting his fledgling band, MUTUAL APPRECIATION is less a love story than an insightful and hilarious portrayal of the art of awkwardness. Andrew Bujalski, voted "Someone to Watch" at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards and writer-director of critically acclaimed FUNNY HA HA (a New York Times Top 10 Film of 2006), slinks through New York City bars, clubs and teeny apartments in this exploration of the gray areas between expectation, disappointment and desire that accompany adulthood. An indie festival favorite, MUTUAL APPRECIATION is a cleverly written, utterly timeless snapshot of post-college angst.
QUIET CITY + DANCE PARTY USA (2007)
Widely praised for his contemplative lyricism and character-driven style, and his "gift for naturalistic dialogue" (VILLAGE VOICE), writer-director Aaron Katz now stands at the vanguard of American cinema's new wave of forward-thinking independents. In QUIET CITY, Katz's deceptively simple drama that has been called "a Terrence Malick film for the new lost generation" (AUSTIN CHRONICLE), we meet twenty-something Jamie (Fisher) as she arrives in New York to visit a friend who never shows. On an empty subway platform, she crosses paths with a kindly stranger named Charlie (Lankenau), and an unlikely connection is formed over the next 24 hours through city parks, abandoned apartments, and art galleries in the heart of industrial Brooklyn. Achingly sincere and shot with a painterly eye. Katz's approach is refreshingly devoid of romantic clichés. Then in his impressionistic and tenderly heartbreaking debut, DANCE PARTY, USA hailed as "one of the best films of the year" (NEW YORK SUN) apathetic teens Jessica (Kavan) and Gus (Pennsinger) share a fleeting moment at a Fourth Of July party in Portland, but their relationship grows closer and more complex after Gus confronts her with a troubling secret.
Struggling to balance their online obsessions with the demands of real life, Alex (Bewersdorf), Chris (C. Mason Wells), and Tim (Swanberg) are, like many young men, unable to decipher the mixed messages that everyday tools of communication offer. Does email help them connect, or are they alienating their chances for love by viewing women through the dimensions of a computer screen and the lens of a cameraphones? Filmed with documentary-like realism and a nonprofessional cast, and featuring a brilliantly eclectic soundtrack by Bewersdorf, LOL's defiantly un-Hollywood approach pulls no punches in its up-to-the-second relevance and honesty about the new male paradigm.
Kentucker Audley's homegrown debut TEAM PICTURE is a deadpan comic odyssey about that moment before adulthood when you don't need an excuse to quit your job, and sometimes you fall for the wrong girls... shucks! Praised as one of FILMMAKER MAGAZINE's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Audley stars as an aimless young musician who passively floats through his own life, even in the throes of a break-up, a brand new fling or an open-mic performance. The Boston Phoenix calls it "a lazy, Memphis afternoon of a movie...TEAM PICTURE creates a world and the lives in it and wisely leaves them all hanging."
From the award-winning Duplass Brothers comes BAGHEAD, a wildly funny send-up of low-budget horror movies starring Ross Partridge Steve Zissis, Great Gerwig and Elise Muller. While debating the merits of writing a screenplay based on a bag-headed serial killer, four friends soon discover there may be more to their story than meets the eye when a stolen car battery, strange noises and a mysterious disappearance or two lead them to believe a sack-wearing maniac may be lurking right outside their door.
Mattie and James are in love and living in separate cities. But too many mornings and too many miles apart have taken a toll on them. As they both struggle with the distance between New York and Chicago, their visits become reminders of the difficulties rather than the pleasures of their relationship. Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig follow their collaborations on HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS and LOL with an intimate portrayal of coupling, longing and raw emotional vulnerability. This time Swanberg co-stars with Gerwig, and Gerwig co-directs with Swanberg, creating a startlingly honest adult drama that SALON.COM hails as "erotic and electrifying. This is a new-school independent film with old-school integrity. NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS is a knockout!"
It's been a decade since Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife and home. Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up unannounced on Ben's doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of macho one-upmanship. Late into the night at a wild party, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest together. But what kind of boundary-breaking, envelope pushing porn can two straight dudes make? After the booze and big talk run out, only one idea remains -- they will have sex together on camera. It's not gay, they tell themselves. It's beyond gay. It's not porn; it's art. But how exactly will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna (Delmore), Ben's wife?
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