Jeff, Who Lives at Home (Friday, March 16, 2012) (28)

I have a very strange relationship with the films of the Jay and Mark Duplass. I find their movies really interesting and impressively made, especially considering their low budgets, but I find myself always a bit disappointed with the final products.

Their films are almost entirely made from their own original scripts and I think that is where the problems are. They write very weird scripts with strange forced moments and uncomfortable changes from slow to face pacing. They also have no idea how to end their movies, frequently going with an idea that doesn't totally work.

Their latest film, Jeff, Who Lives at Home is another example of a movie that is interesting because it almost works, but ultimately falls apart when the pieces don't connected well.

The eponymous Jeff (Jason Segal) lives at home with his mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon) in Baton Rouge. One day he gets a wrong-number phone call that convinces him to believe that there is a meaning to his otherwise ordinary, empty day. When Sharon (who is dealing with a secret admirer at work) sends him on an errand he gets sidetracked following up on the trail of the wrong-number.

He then bumps into his brother Pat (Ed Helms) who is dealing with a midlife crisis and the dissolution of his marriage to his wife Linda (Judy Greer). The two brothers go on an odyssey through south-eastern Louisiana looking for meaning in their boring, shity lives.

The biggest problem with the film is that it has way too much plot packed into a tiny shell. There is barely any room to breathe and almost no space to develop any emotions, as audience members, aside from what is clearly presented to us. It is clear who is good and who is bad, what forces are working with and against the characters -- but there is no ability to have any deeper connections to characters or their actions. What's that old chestnut about "comedy is tragedy plus time"? Well, here's it's really "comedy is tragedy plus no distance." Considering the central story is about Jeff and his weird Bloom-like day, strangely proving a fatalism in the midst of gonzo neorealism, we don't really need the side stories about Pat and Linda or Sharon.

I still have a sweet spot in my heart for the Duplasses, but desperately wish they could work on a film with another writer's script. I feel their intimacy with their process gets in their way and they can't see the shortcomings of their stories. This is probably a generally average example of their work (a far cry from The Puffy Chair or Baghead -- their two mumblecore features), but not entirely bad.

Stars: 2.5 of 4

Cold Weather (Monday, February 14, 2011) (6)

More than being a genre, mumblecore is an aesthetic, a way a movie is made and designed. There is no reason why there can't be genre movies underneath the mumblecore umbrella (the Duplass brothers' Baghead was basically a mumble-thriller). Aaron Katz's Cold Weather is the first mumble-mystery movie, although it gets there is a really dull, sloppy way.

Doug is a loser living in Portland, Oregon where he shares an apartment with his sister and works at an ice factory while he figures out if he's going back to finish college. One day his ex-girlfriend comes to town on business. When she doesn't show up for a date (with a friend of his) he and his sister start looking for her. It seems she's involved in some mysterious but illegal dealings and her life might be at risk. So this everyman has to track down the bad guys who are threatening his ex and do something about them.

The biggest problem with this is that it starts out like a normal mumble movie with long, uncomfortable domestic scenes, quiet conversations about nothing (Man: "Doug, what did you study in college before you dropped out?" Doug: "Forensic science" Man: "Oh - like CSI:?" Doug: "Yeah.") and no particular plot. It's only in the second act that the film turns into a mystery and strangely sheds this "conceit of nothingness".

Unexpectedly, Doug becomes a driven man who seems to be more than totally helpless (which he is at the beginning). This transition happens for no particular reason and never really looks back at the past. Doug is suddenly and ridiculously not a loser, but a cunning private eye. We are abruptly in a different movie, different in tone, speed and narrative from the first. To say that solving the mystery gives Doug purpose and direction is just facile and silly. He begins merely as a type and then becomes a different type, but with no motivation or struggle.

Based on Katz's past works, like Quiet City and Dance Party, USA (both of which are good, but not great), we expect this to be a story of relationships, love and sadness. He pulls a rather unfair trick by showing Doug in what seem to be romantic situations with the woman he lives with (like taking a trip to a beautiful waterfall) but not telling us until later that he's doing these things with his sister - we have thought to this point that she's his girlfriend. This is a bit of an eff-you from Katz to us, I think, and serves no real purpose.

Despite the mystery plot giving some structure to the film, it is not a really good puzzle and doesn't really keep us guessing, or even giving a shit. Ultimately, Cold Weather is neither fish nor fowl. It's not a mumblecore movie about nothing and it's equally not a good brain-twister. I appreciate that Katz is pushing the boundaries of the DIY genre, but in the end, the story is really, really dull and there's very little good about the film.

Stars: 1.5 of 4

Cyrus (Sunday, June 27, 2010) (58)

Cyrus is the latest film from Jay and Mark Duplass, two directors who first made a name for themselves with mumblecore films. Their two major works to this point, The Puffy Chair and Baghead, are both interesting pieces and both fit much more squarely into the mumblecore world than this one does. I think both films have good stuff in them, but they both rather fall apart in the would-be third act as the story goes slightly off the rails.

Cyrus, despite being a much bigger production with bigger stars and a more conventional script suffers a similar fate. It starts out well, if a bit weird, and then turns a corner in the third act that makes the whole thing a bit less than wonderful.

John (John C. Reilly) is a 40-something loser living in LA, still friendly with his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener). One night she gets him to join her and her new fiance at a party. He joins them expecting to have a terrible time, but at the party meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) a 40-something hottie. They hit it off and end up back at his place. After their second date, he follows her home and meets her 20-year-old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who lives with her. Cyrus and Molly have an unusually close relationship that John has to get used to. Cyrus and John begin to resent each other for taking their time away from Molly.

True to their mumble roots, the Duplasses present the film in a very low-budget-looking style. Most of the camera work is hand-held and the score is minimal with basically no fancy cutting or tricks. This adds a nice level or matter-of-factness to the story. The problem I had is that it feels so natural, but the story is pretty inane. There is no way this woman would have a son as weird as Cyrus and would interact with him the way she does. Their characters are a bit exaggerated, I think, beyond the naturalistic skeleton of the film.

John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei are both great and play the more dramatic, more serious parts of the film well. Jonah Hill is a bit too silly for the film, I think. He is very funny at some points (like when he's playing his own techno music for John), but it's too ridiculous at other times (like when he tries to sabotage a wedding). I feel like he doesn't meld well inside the film, but is more of a hat on top of it. It's sorta like Cyrus, featuring Jonah Hill - which is rather annoying.

Again, the film begins well and has some good stuff in it, but I think the last third are a bit of a throw-away. There is not enough time given to several key ploy points, which results in a disorienting series of scenes. This is a shame, because just like with Baghead that was 70% good and 30% dumb, this never reaches that top level it comes so close to.

I really do think the Duplasses have some good stuff going for them. They seem to be able to direct actors well and have a good sense of technical stuff, but they need to work a bit harder on their scripts. It might be OK in mumbleworld to have a sorta scruffy or less-than-perfect script, but in big budget world, this sort of thing stands out in a bad way.

Stars: 2 of 4

Beeswax (2009) (Sunday, April 11, 2010) (226)

Beeswax is the latest film from writer/director Andrew Bujalski, the so-called "Godfather of Mumblecore". He was the originator of the movement with his 2002 film Funny Ha Ha, and has remained to the genre's a pioneer and major collaborator. Sadly, this film does not rise to the level of his past works like Funny or Mutual Appreciation.

The wonderfulness of mumblecore is that they're not really *about* anything other than young people doing stuff and screwing. This film has more of a plot, though, than most - and only a limited amount of coitus. In it there are twin sisters, Jeannie and Lauren, who live in Austin (because Bujalski followed the hipsters from Boston to Brooklyn and then down to Texas - like birds migrating south for the winter). Jeannie, who is physically handicapped and is in a wheelchair, co-owns a vintage clothing store but is having trouble with her business partner. She asks for legal help from a friend and sometimes fuck-buddy Merrill. Lauren has just broken up with a boyfriend, but is then offered a job to teach English in Nairobi by the ex-boyfriend's brother.

I normally love the dullness of mumblecore movies - that they're just small relationship stories and are made in a scruffy, inventive ways with available materials, small crews and non-actors - but this one didn't work for me at all. There is *too much* plot here and the sitting around and talking has too much direction. Unlike something like Medicine for Melancholy, which is a love story told in a mumblecore style, this is a mumblecore movie telling a dull story. It doesn't work.

I don't care that Lauren is looking for a job or that the job happens to be with the company of her ex - that's too high-concept for what is needed. I don't care about Jeannie's legal trouble (which is really never spelled out - and it's not clear what her dead-beat partner could possibly sue her over). Mublecore movies are not supposed to deal with things like lawsuits - because directionless 20-somethings simply don't get sued.

Jeannie and Lauren are played by non-actor twins Tilly and Maggie Hatcher. Maggie is totally fine, but her role is mostly supporting. Tilly is much too angry and mean for the role. She's not all that nice as a boss, and it's very difficult to like her or respect her. She's much too clinical with bullshit that goes on. When one of her staff asks to go to a gay rights rally, she hounds her for five minutes that she might get arrested so she should call a co-worker to back-up her next shift. This is totally dumb and unnecessary and makes her come off as a cold bitch, which I don't think is what we are supposed to feel - and I don't think is helpful for the story. I think she's passive aggressive and I only caught her smiling three times in the film. I don't get that. (I should admit that I have strong negative reactions to people in wheelchairs -seriously - so might just not like her beyond her acting.) Bujalsi does not act in this film (as he did in his previous pieces). I think this is a big mistake as his nervous nebbishness generally adds great texture to the pictures he's in.

I guess you could say that this is 8 years after Funny Ha Ha, so these characters are bit more grown up than earlier ones in Bujalski's films - that it's still the style of the earlier fare, but with a story dealing with slightly older people. To that I would say that while are there still elements of the loser, hipster stories of classic mumblecore - like kids going back to school, not knowing what to do in life and having casual sex with their friends because it's available - it's too much of a typical narrative story to work well. It's neither a good independent film, nor is it a good no-budget, DIYish mumblecore movie.

I really like Andrew Bujalski's other films, but this one just didn't work for me. I think the high praise it's received (it was on several best of 2009 lists) is unwarranted. I hope Buj can pull it back together for his next film.

Stars: 1 of 4

Greenberg (Friday, March 26, 2010) (22)

I really like so-called "Mumblecore" films. This mid-aughts mini-movement developed rather organically in the United States where film students started making gritty, microscopic-budget dramas about mid-20s post-college malaise. Most of these films are story-based, feature either non-actors or unpolished actors, have stories that are less traditionally structured and use new media and formal experimentation throughout.

Two of my favorites are Andrew Bujalski's Funny Ha Ha from 2005 and Joe Swanberg's LOL from 2006. Both deal with relationships between lovers and friends and how the current young generation has difficulty connecting with one another (suggested by the IM shorthand in the titles). I think it is the most successful post-modernist film movement in commercial release.

Greta Gerwig is a mumblecore alumna, having worked with Joe Swanberg on LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs. She is disarming and totally honest. She is the girl next door because she's absolutely average-looking and still beautiful. She is the slightest bit out of shape - but this only adds to the idea that you could meet her at a bar or a friend's party and date her.

She is also almost the only thing good in Greenberg, a mainstream mumblecore film about misanthropy made by Noah Baumbach, an interloper and poseur.

I have a love-hate relationship with Baumbach. I thought his first film, Kicking and Screaming was very OK (though, I admit, I might have been too young when I first saw it to have a decent opinion about); I thought The Squid and the Whale was really great; I thought Margot at the Wedding was rather miserable and I now don't like this one. Oy vey.

The story revolves around Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) who is a horrible, hateful New York loser who is more-or-less unemployed, recently got out of some sort of mental hospital (which we never really are clear about, but is relevent enough to mention a few times), has burned basically all the bridges in his life and spends his days as some level of carpenter (in New York, at least) and by writing notes of complaint to companies who bother him.

He is house sitting the posh Hollywood home of his brother who is out of town on vacation with his family. His brother's young personal assistant, Florence (Gerwig), seems to take care of everything from shopping for groceries to looking after the family dog. Greenberg meets Florence awkwardly one morning and later in the day, when he exhausts the three phone numbers in his Rolodex, calls her for a date.

He doesn't drive or have access to a car (which is weird because it would seem in LA his brother would have a car available while he is out of town... this is totally contrived), so Florence picks him up. They end up back at her place after a few minutes and end up making out (with possibly the worst, most uncomfortable and bizarre on-screen cunnilingus I've ever seen in my life). For the rest of the film, Greenberg treats Florence badly, she falls deeper and deeper in love with him and he pisses off the only two old friends that don't totally hate him by this point (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rhys Ifans).

I don't find misanthropy to be interesting. It's like someone having red hair being an interesting characteristic or something to make a movie about. Some people are terrible and have destructive personalities and that does not make them more engaging as characters. Yes, Greenberg is a smart guy who has a quick tongue and can make a lot of pop-culture references and leaps of logic - but he's basically a very dull person to watch.

He sits around, bitches, calls people to take care of him, treats people badly and doesn't really feel bad about any of this.(By the way, there is a suggestion here that Greenberg has had a breakdown that put him in the hospital, but we never get to know much about this, so his inability to commit to Florence and other friends might be because he's generally rotten in his character and might be because there's a emotional-psychological problem, but we never find out much about this).

The writing by Baumbach (based on a concept by him and his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh) is terrible. The story is totally monotone with no development, no intrigue, no analysis or redemption and no pacing. Greenberg's dialogue is punchy, but I think that's easy to write and not all that interesting. I can bitch, insult people for hours and be very wise and there's nothing about my life that is particularly screen-worthy.

I guess this is where the mumblecore thing comes in. The themes in this film (not being able to commit, not having any direction, general dissatisfaction with one's life) are the mainstays of mumblecore. The scenes between Greenberg and Florence are pure mumblecore (people meet at a party- or a job - and hook up, having raw, ugly sex and circular conversations). One problem with this is that most of the dialogue from Greenberg is elevated, Hollywood Oscar-bait with long monologues, while the lines from Florence are pure mumblecore, with grunts and sighs and awkward timing and a patina of reality that Greenberg (that Stiller) does not have.

The other problem with this, of course, is that this is a dirty white hippie with dreadlocks. It is neigher fish nor fowl. It is not mumblecore as the story is too polished and has too much direction and is really *about* Greenberg's misanthropy, which is much too introspective in the dark surface world of mumblecore.

Stiller is totally fine here in this role, but I think it's a pretty easy character to play. He's basically a total asshole. There's not much nuance and he doesn't grow or change much at all from beginning to the end (thanks to the terrible writing). Gerwig is a real discovery and is perfect for the role - especially because she's effectively unknown to most audiences so we come in with no preconceived notions about her. She's modest and average, but clearly sexy in a dirty hipster way. She's unpolished and shy and exactly like countless women we all know as friends or friends of friends. She has the best qualities of of the mumblecore movement.

Technically the film is fine, thought Harris Savides' photography is beautiful and intimate and not overdone. I also give lots of credit to costume director Mark Bridges who put Gerwig in a cardigan that is absolutely perfect for the character and brings with it as much background as you need to know about her (she got it from her ex boyfriend or her father or a thrift store and wears it everywhere in the LA winter). Again, this costume design is straight out of mumblecore.

More than a white kid with dreadlocks, this is a white man in blackface. Mumblecore is wonderful because it's small and independent and fresh and the means of productions are made outside the polish of the Hollywood machine on borrowed equipment in a cast-member's crappy rental apartment. This is the big-budget, mainstream version of that. It has a big time actor and is trying to *say* something about the state of people in the modern world. It has no soul, though. It's a fake and a fraud and almost an offense to the bright, natural originals.

I can see Gerwig hitting it big from this. She's really great and I can see Hollywood people thinking they can make her then next ScarJo or Anne Hathaway. I wouldn't support this, though, as I think she's a much more dorky, unpolished actor than those other movie stars. I hope she goes back to weird small movies (though I'd love for her to get a paycheck and I can't imagine she makes much in the smaller fare). I also hope Hollywood does not catch on any further to mumblecore. Baumbach might have killed the genre here - I hope others don't come along to feed on the carcas.

Stars: 1.5 of 4 (those stars are for Gerwig and Savides only)