MUTUAL APPRECIATION
Directed by Andrew Bujalski
TEAM PICTURE
Directed by Kentucker Audley
LOL
Directed by Joe Swanbe rg
THE PUFFY CHAIR
Directed by the Duplass brothers
Mumblecore
The new indie-film movement that talks softly, moves slowly
WHAT IS IT?
In 2005 a group of kindred
filmmakers, including
Boston’s Andrew Bujalski,
Chicago’s Joe Swanberg,
and Austin brothers Jay
and Mark Duplass, con-
verged at the Texas city’s
South by Southwest Film
Festival and discovered
that their talky lo-fi movies
shared a simpatico aes-
thetic. “Once we started
seeing each other’s films,
I think we all sensed that
there were more than
a few similarities,” says
Swanberg. “All of the films
featured improvisation.
All of them featured real
couples playing couples.
Almost all were shot on
digital video.” With the
scent of a new indie-film
movement in the air, a
colleague dubbed the
genre “mumblecore,” in
reference to the movies’
distinctively indistinct
style of dialogue. (“Do
you, uh, do you like, uh,
enjoyment?” a character
utters in Kentucker
Audley’s Team Picture.)
THE STYLE
With budgets that
rarely top five figures,
the features have the
naturalistic, raw feel of
early John Cassavetes and
Richard Linklater. A typical
mumblecore film might
best be described as an
“inaction movie”; most
involve little more than
a postcollegiate slacker
waiting for something—a
phone call, a ride, a chair
to be reupholstered—as
adulthood, and all its
terrifying responsibilities,
looms ominously. Nearly
all include at least one
struggling musician (often
played by a real struggling
musician) or a protagonist
who quits his or her job to
do absolutely nothing.
THE AUTEUR
If Quentin Tarantino
personified the Miramax
era, then actor/filmmaker
Bujalski is the mumble-
core figure most likely to
end up on Charlie Rose.
“He’s a purist in how he
approaches his craft,” says
Matt Dentler, producer
of the SXSW Film Festival.
“In this group, his
films are the most like
Cassavetes and Eric
Rohmer. They share
the aesthetic of those
classics of world cinema.”
Bujalski’s 2002 feature
Funny Ha Ha established
the genre’s formal guide-
lines: Cast your friends
(or yourself in a pinch),
write what you know, and
allow plenty of room for
spontaneous exchanges.
He’s also the first of the
crew to be courted by
Hollywood: Producer Scott
Rudin (Wonder Boys, The
Darjeeling Limited) hired
him to adapt Benjamin
Kunkel’s acclaimed novel
Indecision.
T FHILEMEOSGSREANPTHIAYL Viewed individually, mumblecore movies feel wildly unconventional. Watch too many and they can start to look like a bunch of prospectors mining the same claim. Two non-Bujalski pictures stand above the rest. Swanberg’s carefully observed and scrupulously edited LOL explores the way technology simultaneously divides and connects people. And Aaron Katz’s melancholic Quiet City captures, with elegant colors and imagery, a chance meeting in Brooklyn between two strangers. (LOL is available on DVD now; Quiet City arrives in January.) MATT SINGER
1 LED ZEPPELIN REUNITING FOR BENEFIT GIG Lou Dobbs pressuring them not to play “Immigrant Song”
2 DAVE NAVARRO DIRECTS PORN FILM We’re surprised it took this long
3 QUEENSRŸCHE’S COVER OF THE O’JAYS’ “FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY” Neither silent, nor lucid
4 MORRISSEY DECLINES $75 MILLION FOR SMITHS TOUR Johnny Marr + the Healers willing to reunite for 20
quid and whatever’s left of that muffin you’re holding 5 DIPLO REMIXES THE DECEMBERISTS Nothing gets the club bangin’ like a kickass wheel-fiddle solo
6 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ACCUSED OF PLAGIARIZING TOMMY TUTONE Once again fueling rumors that Nebraska was totally cribbed from Toni Basil
7 KELLY CLARKSON TOURS SMALL THEATERS If Clive Davis could change facial expressions, he’d be smirking
8 LIGHT IN THE ATTIC’S SUMMER RECORDS ANTHOLOGY Canada’s roots-reggae past: Just as chill as their health-care system, and even more enviable
9 FRED DURST COPS TO HIT TING PEOPLE WITH HIS CAR Also, Shifty Shellshock strafes someone with his bike
10 MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM We can’t wait for the sequel: Dr. Poomore’s Crunktastical Shoe Store 11 COUNTING CROWS ARE BACK Sadly, Mr. Jones is now a 44-year-old realtor who confuses them with Dishwalla
12 THE CURE UNEXPECTEDLY POSTPONE TOUR Robert Smith to bandmates: “Show me how you do that trick! No, really, show me! I’ve completely forgotten.”
13 THE CREATIVE RESURGENCE OF OPUS Daily comics haven’t been this intriguing since the Lockhorns had a key party with Hi and Lois
14 STEVE COOGAN, ALLEGED BAD-BEHAVIOR ENABLER On the Night at the Museum set, he tried to get a woolly mammoth to lick an Australian cane toad
15 DR. DRE GETS BUFF Expect his new diet bar—Deez Low-Fat Nutz in Your Mouth—in GNC stores soon 16 ARUGULA IS AMERICA’S MOST TALKED-ABOUT LEAFY GREEN We thought this was gonna be kale’s year 17 IN DEFENSE OF THANKSGIVING If we didn’t kill all the turkeys, they’d just crowd the malls the next day
18 T.I. vs. T.I.P., MILEY C vs. HANNAH MONTANA If only Garth Brooks could regrow his Chris Gaines soul patch 19 MADONNA DECLARES HERSELF AN “AMBASSADOR FOR JUDAISM” Her “Oy Toy” belts hit H&M this fall
20 HILLY KRISTAL R.I.P. Here’s hoping heaven has a slightly cleaner bathroom
CLOCK WISE FROM TOP LEF T: COURTES Y E THAN VOG T AND IMAGE EN TER TAINMEN T; COURTES Y KEN TUCKER AUDLE Y; COUR TES Y ROADSIDE AT TRAC TIONS; COUR TES Y JOEPSHWOATONCBR ERED GI T
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