Everyone Says I Look Just Like Her (2010) dir. Ryan A. Balas Starring: Deidre Herlihy, Jace Nicole, Ryan A. Balas, Joe Swanberg
**1/2
By Reece Crothers
The tone of Ryan Balas' second feature film, much like it's title, is occasionally reminiscent of middle period Woody Allen, and in its best moments evokes the grim, pretty, heartwrenching moments between intimates in claustrophobic settings that Woody perfected in Interiors and September.
The story follows two half sisters, one white and one black, and their awkward boyfriends, who spend a weekend together in a cozy cabin in the Michigan woods. The girls are waiting for the arrival of their father for the tenth anniversary of their mother's death. In a more traditional film the suggested impending confrontation with the father might make for the climax, but we never get to the father's arrival. Likewise, you might expect the drama to concern itself with issues of race given the different backgrounds of the sisters. Instead the talky story's drama is mostly made up of tiny moments, small disagreements or misunderstandings, while waiting. It's an interesting narrative choice to avoid the expected dramas the filmmakers set up in the first act, but one with not much of a pay off as it also afflicts the film with the same aimlessness as its protagonists.
There is one playful moment of tonal shift when three of the main characters are paid a surprise visit and the movie suddenly feels like it is about to shift into "Halloween" territory. But that moment passes quickly and the film's trajectory returns to a mumblecore chamber piece. I guess if I want to see a mumble-horror I'll have to finally watch the Duplass brothers' "Baghead" (Which I avoided because of "Puffy Chair" but am now reconsidering because of "Cyrus").
The end result here is something like a really intense exercise in an improv-acting class. Everybody digs deep and reaches cathartic emotional moments but it takes a long time to get there and it doesn't all hold together as one thematic whole. That's why acting classes don't have audiences. They are emotionally messy, occasionally profound, but designed for the benefit of the actor, not the spectator. The story's aimlessness robs the film and the audience of the same catharsis that its players seem to reach. The film feels authentic because of the mumble-core aesthetic, like watching someone elses home videos, or like going away for the weekend with two couples who seem to be having a great time but never ask you to join in on the fun. And here they actually don't seem to be having that much fun.
It's one of the mumblecore genre's shortcomings, that it's films so often confuse "awkward" with "dramatic". Perhaps it is a side-effect of the youthful filmmakers behind the films. But the youth of its filmmakers and its protagonists is also mumblecore's greatest asset. It's a catch 22. It's hard to know how to relate to others when you still haven't figured out who you are. That seems to be the central thesis of all of the mumblecore films. It's an astute observation, but the insight often ends there. The filmmakers, like the characters (and often the filmmakers are also the actors playing those characters) are still working through these confusing feelings, still searching for an identity, and they lack the clarity of hindsight.
Co-starring here as the fuck buddy, Joe Swanberg has always been a fascinating filmmaker, but he really blossomed in his last picture "Alexander The Last" because his characters seemed to finally figure things out, finally grew out of the confusion that is so much of your 20s. When I wrote about that Swanberg picture I titled the piece "The Film That Killed Mumblecore" because after that movie I didn't think one could go back to asking the same questions that it already seemed to answer. "Alexander" basically ended the need for further examination of the themes that have dominated the mumblecore films en masse.
While I felt myself craving a more, dare I say it, traditional central narrative to drive the plot forward, I actually enjoyed many of the technical aspects. Balas continues mumblecore's fascination with documentary aesthetics - handheld cameras, over-use of tightly framed shots, low-lighting, etc) and the film feels very intimate and personal. Too much so at first. There is an uncomfortable voyeurism in the frank sexual depiction of the first couple early in the film because we don't know the characters well enough yet to be in bed with them. But as the film plays we slowly get to know the young couple, the visiting sister, her new fuck buddy, and start to care about them too. There is a quiet assuredness in the pacing (that would really have worked with more punch to the dramatic bits) and the restrained use of music is very effective in a few almost transcendent sequences. The best of these comes right at the end.
It's actually the ending that I loved most, and all is usually well that ends well. It is unexpectedly sweet and moving and beautifully shot. The cast stands in a field at sundown and lights paper lanterns that rise and disappear into a darkening sky. That may be the most accurate metaphor for the end of youth in any mumblecore film yet. I'm looking forward to what Balas does next.
Jess Weixler & Amy Seimetz in Joe Swanberg's Alexander The Last.
By Reece Crothers
Joe Swanberg's most recent picture proves that there is indeed life after mumblecore. In fact this film may be the last time you need to use the "M" word while discussing Swanberg's work. But for the uninitiated, a quick history:
Attributed to Andrew Bujalski, the director of Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, the term "mumblecore" refers to a very loose collective of young filmmakers whose d.i.y. aesthetic, youthful protagonists, improvised dialogue and non-professional casts, contributed to a sense of community before there actually was one. The south-by-south-west festival in Austin, Texas brought together Bujalski, Swanberg and other filmmakers like the Duplass' Brothers (The Puffy Chair, Cyrus) and Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City), and provided context to discuss the films in relation to each other. But unlike the French "Nouvelle Vague" or the Danish "Dogme '95", the filmmakers behind this alleged movement did not have a conscious agenda or manifesto, they didn't even know each other. But since those first films, the mublecore filmmakers have gone on to collaborate, both in front of and behind the camera, further creating the impression that they, and the actors they share, are members of a film family spanning cities and states. Swanberg appeared on screen in Katz' Quiet City, and Bujalski, along with Duplass brother Mark, both appear in Swanberg's 2007 film Hannah Takes The Stairs, for example.
Andrew Bujalski and Greta Gerwig in Hannah Takes The Stairs.
Mark Duplass and Greta Gerwig in Hannah Takes The Stairs.
The upside to the idea of a movement is that the films provide a context for each other and help small, independent pictures that often fly too far under the radar to reach the audiences they deserve. The downside is that it discredits the unique voice of each of the filmmakers, by lumping them all together, and for audience members who are less able to digest the rough around the edges aesthetics, experimental editing, and occasionally raw, improvised performances, they may dismiss one filmmaker's work because they had a bad experience with another's. I didn't like The Puffy Chair, for example. Not one bit. (Although I loved the Duplass brothers' non-mumblecore Cyrus) And if you told me that was the defining mumblecore movie, I would have missed out on Swanberg's pictures, or Katz's films, or Bujalski's. But there is no defining mumblecore movie. Even aesthetically, the films are only superficially relatable becuase of their small crews and budgets. Compare the stark almost Jarmusch-like black and white film photography of Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation with Swanberg's sharp, digital, colour photography.
Justin Rice in Bujalski's 'Mutual Appreciation'.
Jess Weixler and Justin Rice in Swanberg's Alexander The Last.
To my taste, Swanberg is the best of the bunch. He is certainly the most prolific. Since his 2005 debut Kissing On The Mouth, Swanberg has released a new picture every year, and four seasons of his sexy, innovative IFC web series Young American Bodies, a new documentary series The Stagg Party about Photographer Ellen Stagg, while also acting, shooting, and/or producing films for other filmmakers. That kind of output makes Swanberg the Woody Allen or Steven Soderbergh of his generation. And each of Swanberg's films has improved on the one previous. Considering that he accidentally started a new movement with his first, it is not intended as small praise.
The trend continues with Alexander The Last, Swanberg's most mature and accomplished work, and in many ways the culmination of themes and ideas he has been working on in all of his previous pictures. Working with a name producer this time, Noah Baumbach (writer and director of The Squid & The Whale, for which he recieved an OSCAR nomination for best screenplay), and featuring Hollywood stars like Jane Adams (Happiness, Hung) and Josh Hamilton (Baumbach's Kicking & Screaming), Swanberg has transcended the limitations of mumblecore and created a film that is at once both a breezy romantic comedy AND a challenging drama about commitment - in art and relationships - as a young actress is tempted by a crush on her her co-star while her musician husband is away on tour, and to complicate things further, plays matchmaker between her crush and her fragile, beautiful sister, well played by the lovely Amy Seimetz (Wristcutters, A Love Story).
The subject of romantic entanglements that arise when artists collaborate is the perfect fit for Swanberg whose earlier pictures and web series featured actors performing real sex on camera. The same dramatic question is being asked here as in Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, albeit on a much smaller canvas, which is essentially, "Is it possible for two artists to find true love and happiness together?". In the audio commentary Swanberg explains that he navigated the same moral quandaries as his central character in "Alexander" while working on his previous projects. This film is dedicated to Swanberg's wife and frequent collaborator, Kris, and the film is both a love letter and an apology to her for exactly the kind of entanglements that the story dramatises.
If you've seen the very intimate Nights & Weekends, Swanberg's 2008 film with Greta Gerwig, you can imagine that the vulnerability and emotional commitment required to play such an intimate chamber piece could very easily bleed into the actors' off-screen lives. Watching Nights & Weekends is like watching certain Cassavetes films, it is so intimate, that it is emotionally exhausting to experience. It stays with you for days after. The blurry line between what is real and what is drama is what gives the film its edge. Seeing Gerwig and Swanberg introduce the film together at a screening at Toronto's Bloor Cinema a few years back, one had the impression of watching two weary soldiers just home from the war.
Swanberg & Gerwig in Nights & Weekends
Gerwig has since gone on to mainstream success, co-starring in Noah Baumbach's recent Ben Stiller dramedy, Greenberg. Baumbach got Gerwig and Swanberg got Baumbach. There is a nice symmetry there. Greenberg served as the perfect vehicle for Gerwig's transition to bigger budget, more mainstream work, and her oddly affecting, aloof charm, has made her something of a Diane Keaton for this generation, but it is unlikely that she will ever do anything as raw as her work with Swanberg in any Hollywood productions. Unless maybe they're directed by Joe Swanberg.
Gerwig with Ben Stiller in Noah Baumbach's 'Greenberg'.
In his first picture without Gerwig since 2006's, LOL, Swanberg casts the talented Jess Weixler in the central role as Alex, a young, theatrical actress torn between her commitment to her husband and her desire for her handsome new co-star. It is a great observation on Swanberg's part, rendered with insight, warmth and humour, that when we want to be with someone we cant, we play matchmaker to keep them close. It's a flawed, self-defeating logic, and the stuff of great romantic comedy. The sexual tension on display here between Weixler, as the girl with a crush, and Barlow Jacobs as her hunky co-star, provides plenty of sparks. Both actors come to "Alexander" fresh from dynamic, breakthrough performances in well recieved independent pictures (Teeth, and ShotgunStories, respectively) and share great chemistry. But their relationship is just one of many that make up Alexander's narrative , all equally insightful and finely rendered.
Justin Rice (star of Bujalski's MutualAppreciation") is great as the musician husband. A talented pop musician in his own right (his band Bishop Allen was featured on stage in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist) Rice performs a wonderful musical interlude that underscores the bittersweet tone of the whole picture. Also very strong is Seimetz's heartbreaking turn as the sister who has no idea that she is being set up to have her heart ripped out by her selfish sibling. As Seimetz falls for Barlow Jacobs character, we hold our breaths in gut-twisting anticipation for the moment we know is coming, when she will discover her sister's true feelings for her new boyfriend.
In smaller roles, Adams and Hamilton are fun to watch, too, as the writer and director of the play-within-the-film. Adams in particular seems to have fun with the role. She may be the best comedic supporting actress since Lilly Tomlin at her peak. Watch HBO's Hung if you don't believe me. I wish Altman was still alive. He would know how to craft a picture for her as a lead. She actually appeared in an Altman picture, 1996's KansasCity, but Jennifer Jason Leigh was the star. Leigh also happens to be Baumbach's wife in real-life. All roads lead to Baumbach. You wouldn't have guessed it back in the Mr. Jealousy days. Though I loved that movie. I digress...
The Duplass brothers, despite making the worst mumblecore picture (in my opinion) have had the greatest success in the mainstream, attaching stars like John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, and Marisa Tomei for their last picture Cyrus, not to mention RIDLEY AND TONY SCOTT(!!!!!) as executive producers, but Swanberg's next picture is Silver Bullets and it's about werewolves...sort of. And since we're living in Twilight times (whether we want to be or not) this might be the one that breaks Swanberg into the mainstream, too. No one needs to mention Dogme 95 when they talk about Lars Von Trier anymore because he is bigger than dogme. I think the same will be said of Swanberg. Personally, I can't wait to see what he does with Silver Bullets. And I told you he was prolific, it's only one of two new Swanberg pictures coming out in the near future. Keep your eyes open for Silver Bullets and Uncle Kent.
Awesome poster for 'Silver Bullets', Swanberg's next picture.
And if you haven't already checked out his earlier pictures, here's an essential viewing list of the films mentioned above, and some not mentioned, to scratch that mumblecore itch:
-Alexander The Last (dir. Joe Swanberg, 2009) -Nights & Weekends (dir. Joe Swanberg, 2008) -Hannah Takes The Stairs (dir. Joe Swanberg, 2007) -Dance Party, USA (dir. Aaron Katz, 2006) -Quiet City (dir. Aaron Katz, 2007) -Funny Ha Ha (dir. Andrew Bujalski, 2002) -Mutual Appreciation (dir. Andrew Bujalski, 2005) -Team Picture (dir. Kentucker Audley, 2007) -The Goodtimes Kid, (dir. Azazel Jacobs, 2005) -In Search Of A Midnight Kiss (dir. Alex Holdridge, 2007) -Frownland (dir. Ronald Bronstein, 2007)
My Effortless Brilliance (2009) dir. Lynn Shelton Starring: Basel Harris, Eric Lambert Jones, Calvin Reeder
*1/2
By Alan Bacchus
Lynn Shelton’s” “Humpday” was a great film, perhaps the most audience accessible of this new wave of low rent, semi-improvised Mumblecore films. Unfortunately her previous film, “My Effortless Brilliance”, now available on DVD is not. In fact, it’s probably the worst example of the genre - a terribly navel-gazing and esoteric excuse for a movie.
One of the hallmarks of the Mumblecore genre are the self-absorbed characters whom we see living in their own bubble of petty troubles. However self-absorbed, in 'Humpday' or 'The Puffy Chair' or 'Baghead' this vacuum of angst produced engaging, funny and entertaining characters who go through profound emotional revelations and under the funny observations situational comedy.
In 'My Effortless Brilliance' there’s a conscience effort of Shelton to avoid all of the above. It’s a simple story of two friends who reconnect in the Washington backwoods, years after a falling out. Dylan (Basel Harris) is a semi-successful Seattle-based writer whose pretentious attitude pissed off his old buddy Sean (Eric Lambert Jones), so much so it caused Sean to retreat into near obscurity in the rural Washington interior. Years later, upon the release of Dylan’s latest book he decides on a whim to drive to Sean’s house for a surprise visit.
Sean is exudes no emotion upon seeing Dylan. Is he surprised? Shocked? Pissed off? Happy? Don’t know, but the elephant in the room, the conflict which caused their male-breakup, is never discussed. There’s much awkwardness between the two as they struggle to carry on even a simple conversation. The weekend discomfort continues when Dylan’s woodchopping buddy, Jim joins the fray for hunting trip for a local cougar. The two bond their mutual annoyance of Jim, before Dylan had to leave for the big city.
So we have a story two people fighting, who don’t fight, and we don’t even know what they’re fighting about. What ends up on screen is a lot of dramatic pauses, lengthy improvised and inane dialogue which merely fills space and a lot of long glances and shift eyed eyebrow movements.
The film appears to have been praised for creating a pressure cooker of awkwardness between two passive-aggressive best friends. Indeed, some tension is created with this dynamic, and it’s enough to sustain a first act, but not two other acts in a feature film.
A comparison film executed with infinitely more subtlety, grace, comedy, drama and entertainment value is Richard Linklater’s 'Tape”' which features two old college buddies in a room rekindling old fire and exposing old war wounds. Even Kelly Reichardt’s “Old Joy”, is paced with the same kind of slow simmering tension benefits from a tone of melancholy and sombre life reflection.
There’s much integrity in its filmmaking methodology which we learn in the DVD’s behind-the-scenes featurette. Shelton, essentially employing the Mike Leigh approach of developing the script extensively with the actors as opposed to drafting a traditional screenplay. Watch this film as practice ground for Shelton’s much better executed “Humpday”.
One of the best films at Sundance this year was Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday” – a marvellous low budget comedy about two best friends who, despite being straight, make a bet to try and have gay sex as a test of their friendship (Click HERE for my review). Sounds absurd and ridiculous, yet Shelton and his actors manage to establish a rock solid foundation of realism that we can’t help put ourselves in that situation and believe wholly in their journey. "Humpday" opens around North America on July 10.
If the press screening didn’t go off really well I knew something special was going happen with this film the day after, when, in a rented room above an art gallery on Main St., the publicist, the director, and the three stars assembled to do press interviews.
I found myself waiting on a staircase with a bunch of other journalists politely waiting their turn to talk to the team. There seemed to be more takers than expected, and so everyone seemed to be rushing around trying fit everyone in. And when it was finally my turn I was only allowed 5mins!
Five minutes was all I needed to figure out that Lynn Shelton had cracked a new filmmaking methodology breaking the traditional mould of cinema’s order of operations. Idea – Outline – Script – Financing – Casting – Filming. In order to achieve a distinct naturalism without visible improvisation Shelton employed a self-developed method of ‘upside down’ filmmaking. It’s not like it hasn't been done before - Mike Leigh has been doing this type of thing for years, and this type of naturalism is a hallmark of the so-called 'Mumblecore' films. But Shelton's film is by far the most accessible of this new American film movement and teaming up with fellow ‘mumblecore’ actor/director Mark Duplass is key for Shelton to elevate her film from festival-darling to a legitimate contender for best comedy of the year.
So, I finally was allowed into the room. The publicists had separated the guys and the girls – actors Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard ambled off to some other room, and luckily I got to sit down with the lovely ladies of the film – director Lynn Shelton and her female lead Alycia Delmore:
DFD: Talk about the genesis of the film, how it started and how you got the actors involved with it.
LYNN: I really built it around the actors. We really started with one actor, Mark Duplass. I had admired his work and he’s a filmmaker, and one half of the Duplass Brothers. I’d seen “The Puffy Chair”, I hadn’t seen “Baghead” yet but and I was also becoming good friends with friends of his and so we had all these mutual acquaintances. And he ended coming up to Seattle where I lived to star in a film called True Adolescence, which was an independent film being shot there. And I got myself on set because I like to be on set but really I was there to meet Mark. That was the key motivation for me, so I volunteered my time as a stills photographer to get myself there. And we really bonded. We were really primed to meet each other because we’d heard of each others’ films and our filmmaking methodologies and it seemed we had something in common. And we sure did. It really seemed like we were of the same ilk. Watching him act too I knew I really wanted to work with him. About a month after he got back to LA I gave him a call and I pitched this idea to him.
DFD: Did you have a script at this point?
LYNN: No, I didn’t. This is my third feature – my first film was made in a very traditional way – script first, then casting and everything else. I then came up with what I’ve been deeming, an ‘upside down’ version of filmmaking, because I found that trying to get a level of naturalism that I approved of was very difficult doing it the traditional way. And so I put a number of things into place, and first and foremost was to start with an actor, then a sort of a theme or premise, and really early on bring them in so we can develop the character, so it’s really customized for them. It’s like a club.
DFD: What was the core idea in Humpday?
LYNN: Basically I called Mark and said, ‘I know it sounds a little crazy but the idea I have is that there are two best friends who are straight and they’ll both have different personalities and then, for whatever reason, they decide to try and have sex together. I didn’t know if it was going to be a film yet or not. The main thing was they were going to have gay sex together. It was really loose at that point, and I had some things in place but not others. And the thing that was cool about it was bringing in the performers early on so you can get to know their characters as you develop them and their relationships as the plot is coming together. Especially with a script like this which is so far out in its premise. Its very crazy, ridiculous and we knew, the only way we could pull this off, was not to make an absurd random crazy farce, but grounded in humanity and believability. And the way to do that I thought was to have these fully fleshed out characters that we believed was real people. And once you know who the characters are and what’s supposed to happen in the scene you really know how these people are going to react in a believable way. So that’s why its 'upside down'.
DFD: Alycia, how were you working in that process?
ALYCIA: There was definitely a learning curve. I come from a theatre background and don’t have a lot of experience on film. I actually thought my theatre background was helpful rather than coming from a traditional film world. My only film experience involved being in one of Lynn’s other movies. We knew everything that was going to happen, the arc of the scene, but only where each character would start in the scene and hopefully end up, all of the in-between was up to us. We’d improvise through the scene and then we’d stop and talk about what worked and what didn’t work.
LYNN: And since they embodied their characters if they weren’t feeling it, they’d say, ‘Ben would not say this’. And so if we had an idea, ‘well this is how its gonna play out’ we had the freedom to go with it. I remember this one scene in particular, we just had to change it, because it just wasn’t working. We just couldn’t get from A to B. We said ‘nobody’s going to buy that he would do this’. And so we were always checking back, that scepticism was always pulling us back to ask again and again, from the audience’s point of view, would you believe this? And by just remaining true to the characters it was knowing who they were.
ALYCIA: In some ways having all the responsibility of the actual dialogue on your shoulders kept us honest because you get to a point of when you’re saying things like ‘this doesn’t sound like me. I’m just talking for the sake of talking, to get somewhere.’ So we really managed to keep ourselves honest that way. At least I hope we did.
DFD: I thought it was terrific. When Ben was talking, his dialogue sounded like me talking. Seriously, his words, manner of speech. It was uncanny.
LYNN: I can’t write that way – natural dialogue. Some people can. As long as you cast the right people, it really depends on that. There are actors who really aren’t comfortable with that. Coming up with their own words. If you can find someone who is comfortable with just coming out with what that they would actually say, all they need is the acting ‘objective’, those basic means. What’s going on in the scene, what does my character want, all the acting school things, and when they’re comfortable they're are just always gonna sound more like how speech comes out of somebody’s real mouth. Which is a really tall order. I found to write something down a piece of paper and say ‘ok make this sound like something you’d actually say’ is hard. And that is something I’m always on a quest for. I wanted it to feel like a documentary.
Baghead (2008) dir. The Duplass Brothers Starring:
***
The old standard horror movie set-up of a group of horny youngsters holed up in a cabin for a weekend of sex and blood gets a peculiarly subversive treatment by the masters of mumblecore, The Duplass Brothers. On paper, and even in the trailer, it would seem like an oil and water concoction, but somehow the filmmakers manage to create a horror film with a heart, at times a traditional genre picture with all the chills we expect, but also a naturalistic intimate character study of a friendship put to the test by extreme events.
The film opens at the premiere of a pretentious indie art film at an underground film festival. Matt (Ross Partridge), a struggling actor, is jealous of the adulation the director receives from the film and announces to his friends the idea of secluding themselves in a cabin for a weekend to write their own brilliant feature which will help jumpstart their fledging acting careers.
So Mark along with his best pals, Chad (Steve Zissis), Catherine (Elise Muller) and Michelle (Greta Gerwig) make the road trip into the country to their 'cabin in the woods'. It’s all fun and games until a mysterious man with a bag on his head innocuously appears to several of the friends. While they concede it’s an obvious joke to inspire some creative thought for their script, no one takes blame. The group becomes subject to the old genre clichés, telephone wires are cut, car battery stolen, thus imprisoning them in the woods, with nowhere to turn except to confront the slasher - a confrontation which will lead to more dramatic revelations among themselves.
On film, it’s not hard to make a man with a bag over his head scary (coincidentally, there's an uncanny resemblance to Bryan Bertino’s bagheads in “the Strangers” also released last year). The Duplass Brothers do everything right to scare us, the bagman looking on ominously from the trees, or a quick walkpast a window creates some genuinely chilling moments. But in between these cabin-movie genre-tactics is an endearing story of these friends. Chad, the pudgy n’er do well, pines after the flirtatious but unattainable Michelle. According to Chad his best friend Mark ‘has got game’, which makes Michelle easy-pickings to sleep with him. So Mark's dedication to Chad becomes tested when Michelle's libido heats up.
The Duplass Brothers shoot the film in what seems like classic grainy 16mm, bringing us back to the tone of other cabin horror classics, “The Evil Dead”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Unfortunately the Brothers go overboard with their indie-cred shooting style. Every shot seems to be a close-up, constantly whipping and panning and randomly zooming in and out, often distracting us from what’s happening on screen. The overtooled style is visible in the opening scenes, but as we become involved with the characters and their conflict the style virtually disappears.
The four actors are about an non-descript and unmoviestar-like as they come. Surprisingly Mark Duplass, who played such a fine affable lead in “The Puffy Chair” stays behind the camera here. But perhaps the character of 'Mark' is Duplass's alterego, a character of similar headstrong qualities.
“Baghead” received a distribution deal from Sony Picture Classics, though only a minimal theatrical release. A film like this made to thrive on DVD though and hopefully the film finds it’s audience. The Duplass Brothers are unique filmmakers and deserve some hype. Enjoy.
The Puffy Chair (2005) dir. Jay Duplass. Starring; Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins
***1/2
One of the new cine-buzzwords floating around the film world is ‘mumblecore’, a new form of American neo-realism. The movement which includes filmmakers Lynn Shelton, Andrew Bujalski, Joe Swanberg and the Duplass Brothers, began in the early 2000’s and is characterized by ultra low-budget production values with seemingly natural, almost improvised performances. One of the quintessential films of the movement is “The Puffy Chair”, a quiet little endearing gem of a film. The kind of intimate character film that reaffirms your faith in independent cinema.
Mark Duplass plays Josh, a 20-something failed musician and now struggling booking agent embarking on a cross-country road trip with his unabashedly romantic girlfriend Emily (Kathryn Aselton). His journey, to pick up a Ebay-purchased Lazy Boy chair and drive it to his father as a gift. Their first stop is at his brother Rhett's (Rhett Wilkins) house. The sympathetic Josh decides to bring the freespirited and lonesome Rhett along the journey, thus severely changing the dynamic of the romantic roadtrip. Along the way the three personalities clash resulting in profound personal revelations about each of their relationships.
A film like this runs the risk of caving in under it's own Sundance hipness. Shaky camera road pictures are a dime a dozen in low budget cinema, but it’s the performance of Mark Duplass that anchors the film in such complete naturalism. His soothing voice and confident swagger has the same appealing quality of a calm Vince Vaughn, a talent, I’m surprised no one in big budget Hollywood has yet capitalized on (well, actually he’s filming Noah Boambach’s next film with Ben Stiller).
The comic situations evolve naturally from Josh's character. For example, his stubborn need to save $20 at their first motel stop provides a wonderful comic set piece. In the scene Josh gets a motel room for one, thus avoiding the extra person charges. Which means his girlfriend and his brother have to sneak into the room without the manager noticing. It’s a great moment of physical comedy, but a scene which also reveals and instigates a crucial piece of conflict in Josh and Emily's relationship.
This relationship is the core of the film and it’s a subtle reveals. While our attention is diverted by Josh's goal of buying the chair and giving it to his father, we watch the gradual disintegration of their relationship. And it's painful for both the characters and us. Without giving away spoilers, the ending is powerful and played for suspense as much as raw tragic emotion. What will happen to Josh and Emily? After travelling the three days with them, we desperately want them to be together and work it out, this deep attachment to their characters is a testament to this power of this new breed of mumblecore filmmaker to strip away cinematic artifice like those Danish Dogme filmmakers did 10 years ago. Enjoy.
Humpday (2009) dir. Lynn Shelton Starring: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore
***1/2
The first film off the bat here at Sundance is true masterpiece of comic realism. Remember Kevin Smith’s “Zach and Miri Made a Porno”? Imagine that film told with complete in-your-shoes realism, and funnier.
Ben (Mark Duplass) is a 30 year old middle class male, with a loving wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) in a decent job and in a healthy relationship. They’re about to take the next step and ‘start trying” for a baby. On their ‘humpday’ , in the middle of the night Ben hears a loud knock on the door. It’s Andrew , Ben’s former college roomie, now a journeyman vagabond back from a 12 year global adventure, who, like gangbusters interrupts their quiet life. As Ben and Andrew rekindle their backslapping glory days, we can’t help but think it’s alienating Anna.
During a rambunctious booze and bong filled party, Andrew announces he wants to create an art project for a Porn film festival. During their drunken chatter (and without Anna present) Ben challenges Andrew to make a straight-male porno… together! The next day in a surprising twist both men want to go forward with the idea. The task will challenge their relationship and disclose profound personal revelations within themselves.
It’s kind of a minor miracle for writer/director Shelton who dramatizes such absurdities with unwavering truth and cinema realism. The success perhaps is no surprise as Shelton spent a decade in documentaries before making features. Still the consistency in realism is astonishing. Shelton covers all bases, and in her writing, has thought about the situation from every point of view. Like a thriller genre film has to fill ‘plot holes’, Shelton fills all the ‘emotional holes’. How would Ben approach Anna with the proposition? How would Anna react? What would the two men do once they got in the room and had to do the deed? However disturbing Shelton puts us in their shoes and forces us to ask ourselves, ‘what would I do in that situation?’ No stone of emotional logic is left unturned and the film never falls back on cliché, or Hollywood fakery to pull a laugh.
And no laughs are sacrificed either. Duplass and Leonard have natural bromantic chemistry. Their dialogue feels natural without resorting to painful improvisation. Both characters are both affable and intelligent. And the finale is a tour de force of comic timing, a perfectly set-up climatic scene when the duo are forced to confront their deepest fears.
With such a simple set-up Shelton manages to twist the plot and thus our expectations with ease. As the audience we expect a story like this settle into some kind of Judd Apatow, or Kevin Smith genre comedy, and just as we think we’ve figured out all three characters (including Anna) Shelton will make a sharp left turn to keep us on the balance of realism.
The finale is so satisfying because despite the unconventionality of the storytelling the arc of each character is wrapped up with out-of-the-textbook structural perfection. The black and white notion of Ben as the middle class sell out and Andrew as the worldly bohemian artist are made grey as both characters are brought closer together in ways which relieve our personal neuroses about fitting into such pre-defined archetypes.
This film is a quiet masterpiece and deserves to find a broad audience. Enjoy.