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May 26, 2007

TWO MOVIES I REALLY LOVED

I read about Andrew Bujalski in Chuck Klosterman's monthly column for Esquire (which I always read at the newstand, rather than buy that smut*). But Klosterman claimed that Bujalski was carrying on a noble project started by Richard Linklater with SLACKER - slacker cinema, movies built on conversations as opposed to gimmick, a well-conceived DIY aesthetic. It was intriguing, and, in the age of Netflix, very available. So in the last week, I've watched both of Bujalski's films, FUNNY HA HA and MUTUAL APPRECIATION.

And they are both awesome.

I'm sure I'm wrong about this, but FUNNY HA HA looks like it was made for less than 1000 dollars. The locations are probably the principle crew's apartments/hangouts. The actors are all complete unknowns and yet every single performance is winning. Much has and will be said about Bujalski's ability to write dialogue (though the dialogue seem totally improvised, it's actually scripted), but I think what's more impressive is his ability to get these performances. The plot of FUNNY HA HA is surface romcom/post-college burnout material: a recent college graduate struggles with romance and her professional direction. It's REALITY BITES, which was a truly awful movie that has somehow been romanticized as a generational classic. But the way Bujalski handles the familiarity without melodrama, contrivance, or falling back on every stereotype every created is remarkable - it's more than remarkable; it suggests an untapped potential for talented writer/directors without a big wallet.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION is a similar story - it's a love triangle in which everyone in the triangle gets along, and everyone wants to talk about their feelings, and the problems that come with that. The protagonist is a prog-rocker who doesn't think he's a prog-rocker (his music reminds me of Elf Power**), who struggles with making ends meet and being in a meaningful relationship. There are numerous meandering subplots, including a guy being asked to participate in some kind of VAGINA MONOLOGUES pastiche, that are all interesting and funny.

That's the thing about these movies that makes me able to recommend them to everyone: they're funny. They're true. The characters are likeable without becoming the sitcom-esque stylings of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. The dialogue is artfully written without being forced. Everyone exists in a real world that real people are familiar with. While the characters are not asexual, the director is not interested in gussying things up with pointless erotic scenes.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION is being called the better, more fully realized of the two (and it was great), but I think I liked FUNNY HA HA better, mainly because of the beautiful, star-calibre performance of the lead Kate Dollenmayer. But the actor who steals the show in both movies is the director Bujalski - as a hopeless romantic nerd in FUNNY HA HA and as a neurotic intellectual in MUTUAL APPRECIATION. Usually when directors cast themselves in their films, its a sign of pretension and arrogance. But Bujalski is a gifted comic actor who could easily cross over into mainstream movies. I could easily see him (and his M.A. star Justin Rice) as a surrogate Woody Allen.

Klosterman's melancholy point was that the marketability of these movies create a lose/lose situation: "popular" audiences will ignore them and critics will call them pretentious. This is, unfortunately, probably true. If not for the curiosity peaked by Klosterman's encomium, the failed screenwriter in me would have rolled my eyes at films so intentionally devoid of narrative momentum and all the things I've been taught make a movie a movie. While the text-messaging teens who are really excited about PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN are probably never to going to the shrine of Bujalski, I think there is an audience for this rare, unique, entertaining genre.

So this is not a "I liked it but nobody else probably will" or a rallying cry for film snobs to unite around the latest piece of esoteria. Rent these movies and put Bujalski on your radar. This is the most excited I've been about a director in a long time.

* - You can get the article here. This is good news because now I will never even have to read Esquire at the newstand for Klosterman's articles; thus I will never have to read the latest list by "whatever lawyerly babe is on LAW & ORDER this month" explaining all my misconceptions about women.

Here's the best line from Klosterman's article - something that I wish I could have articulated:

"Viewed superficially, none of this should be important. But here's why it is: All these characters are mumbling about morality. And it's a specific kind of morality. It's "onset morality." The people in Bujalski's films are actively constructing their ethics. These are people who are beyond college but unprepared for life. As such, their ideals and principles are still up for grabs. Certainly, Bujalski is not the first artist who's tried to examine this experience. It's more that he just seems to be the right person to be doing so at the moment that is Now."

** - Apparently, Justin Rice (the star of MUTUAL APPRECIATION) is in a band called Bishop Allen. Anyone know anything about them?

| By Andytown | 09:14 AM

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Posted by: emery at May 26, 2007 01:14 PM

Posted by: emery at May 26, 2007 01:15 PM

Posted by: do at May 30, 2007 04:54 PM

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