The movie was short, maybe a little over an hour. It featured two couples in one probably New York apartment. One couple lived there and the wife of that couple just found out she was pregnant but wasn’t telling anyone. The movie was all shot in the one apartment and focused on conversation between the couples. There was arguing and infidelity. The husband of the couple who didn’t live there spent a chunk of the movie on the phone.
Social Realism reminds me a lot of Mumblecore. The documentary feel, the everyday stories, the meandering - It's like Mumblecore was the Social Realism of the 2000's.
The obvious difference is, of course, the fact that Social Realism was interested in the individual in / as affected by society, while Mumblecore was exclusively interested in the individual.
Joe Swanberg jerking off in the shower in his first feature film illustrates the "Mumblecore"-principle perfectly.
Social Realist films often feel meandering in the beginning, but it mostly falls into place to form a message towards the end, while Mumblecore films just meander.
Am I wrong in comparing the two movements to each other?
If not: What does the comparison say, to you, about the societies that produced the respective movements?
Is there something comparable going on right now?
Lips curled;
there's a painful point
of contention between you,
I,
and a heart full of expectations.
Head down;
I say I can try harder,
but your eyes roll sideways
and I find myself
slipping underfoot.
Open sneer;
you have sharp teeth
and a judgmental tongue,
but I labor under intensity
and bear the weight of pursed lips.
Wilted frown;
this inadequacy is innate-
I can't give more
than a mumbled apology
from a sad, sloping mouth.
as the most informed film group I'm part of it, I thought I'd ask this group about mumblecore:
what do you think its fate is (or was) circa 2020? After the Used Cars ep, I was driven back to THE LEAGUE to watch Jason Mantzoukis' bravura performance as dirtbag Raffi, and it got me thinking about Mark Duplass.
I first learned about this "movement" from this Chuck Klosterman article 13 years ago: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a2859/klosterman0507/
And then I quickly watched and fell in love w/ Bujalski's first two movies (and Computer Chess is one of my favorites of the last ten years). It's how I became an obsessive completist about Greta Gerwig. But I always worried that it would be like what happened when Wayne's World got picked up by a sponsor (we're in wayne's basement; but that's not wayne's basement!) and the momentum it gained as stars and money got involved would keep it from what made it grungy and unique. Obviously, the moniker for the movement wasn't really accurately describing the movement.
The easy answer is these guys have moved on to streaming TV (or HBO, same difference), which seems like a natural movie - the D brothers with Togetherness and Room 104 (and Jay in Transparent); Joe Swanberg with Easy. Andrew Bujalski has taken a mumblecore energy to less lo-fi stuff like Support the Girls. I admit I haven't seen Aaron Katz's last few films. And Gerwig: well, she's amazing and getting blank checks.
I'm just curious what y'all think.
I feel like I've been scouring Query sites for examples that are just simple, non-fantastical, regular everyday life stories and am inundated with "time travel, sci-fi, magic," or something completely tragic like "a car accident, death, injury, etc"
Is there anyone who writes or enjoys reading YA Contemporary that's sort of mundane. The stories that are in-between? That show you life in the little moments that get you to where you are going? I love these little subsections of narrative space.... the "mumblecore" of fiction I guess.
Wondering if anyone else thrives in this area? Or is interested in it? Or writes in it?
According to Wikipedia, the first mumblecore film was Funny Ha Ha in 2002. I was under the impression that Richard Linklater’s film Slacker, in 1990, was the first of the genre? I’m pretty sure we had a lecture about it in university. Although that was over 6 years ago for me now.
Mumblecore, for those who don't know, was a style of film making that emphasized dialogue-driven stories with simple, slow, typically acoustic sound tracks. Often, but not always, these movies revolve around troubled relationships. Good examples are The Puffy Chair, Lost In Translation, The Station Agent, and The Flats. Wikipedia cites the emergence of mumblecore in 2002. However, in my opinion, the trend truly began in the 90's and culturally makes more sense as a product of the 90's. Sling Blade(1995) is absolutely a Mumblecore movie by any metric. The only exception is that these movies typically don't end in murder, but that's not a reasonable reason to exclude it. Slacker is another good example from the 90's. In fact, you might argue Richard Linklater invented the style with Before Sunrise. You could even argue Kevin Smith's early films were mumblecore comedies.
hi all
i love mumblecore so so much, and i just enrolled in a screenwriting class. i want my screenplay to have the authenticity of joe swanberg/the duplass brothers, but since i'm in a course i know i can't just outline it the way they do. is this genre (mumblecore/unscripted/improved/low budget kinda vibe) ever actually scripted? with all the awkwardness and discomfort written in? "uhs" and "uhms" and characters talking over each other? if so, would appreciate a recommendation or any other guidance! thanks
What was so special about mumblecore? Why were the films so polarizing? IMDB averages for most of the mumblecore films are at around 4 or 5. Are any of them actually any good? Will this short-lived genre of film occupy a similar space as the Dogme films of the 90s in terms of perceived importance? Will Mumblecore be taught in higher education film studies? Or is it all bullshit?
I'm planning to do a 30-film Letterboxd series on mumblecore, from Funny Ha Ha (2002) to Frances Ha (2012). I'll see one a week and post a review each Monday of 2017. I want to encourage you guys to join me in talking about and watching these films.
For those who aren't familiar, mumblecore was a pejorative term used to describe dozens of practically no budget films starring no name actors that came out in the mid 2000s and were featured in film festivals around the county, particularly at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. They were generally decried by the public and cinephile alike, with the common criticism being that they were boring movies about straight middle class white men and women where nothing of note happens. Mumblecore became such a popular buzzword and pejorative for a subset of low budget independent films that many of the filmmakers associated with it went out of their way to distance themselves from the term.
I don't really think the word is even used anymore today. That brand of filmmaking has long died out, though some of its pioneer creators still make films today. In fact, Joe Swanberg just released an entire Netflix series this year.
Many of them, in fact, have gone on to greater successes. Greta Gerwig is about to be nominated for an Oscar this year for 20th Century Women, Lena Dunham is going into her 6th season of her own Emmy-nominated HBO show Girls, Mark and Jay Duplass also created an acclaimed HBO show— Togetherness, and have acted in several films—Jay is fantastic on Amazon's Transparent for example. And every few years another of them breaks out into the public consciousness—this is Barry Jenkins's year, with Moonlight possibly winning the Best Picture Oscar in a few months. So it's going to be interesting to watch the films of the movement they came out of.
If anyone's reading this, I'd love for you to join in too because there just isn't that much conversation today about this wave of films and creators— I'd love to hear what other people here think about these movies as I watch them too.
I'm planning to start in 2017 on January 2— I
... keep reading on reddit ➡Looking for movies where the camera is there to allow us to live with the characters instead of the camera being there so we can watch the story. I'm not sure if you know what I mean. Usually those movies are very realistic and very slow burn, and if they are good very emotional. The plot in those movies is usually minimal (can be told in a few words), but the characters are very rich. Examples for what I mean are films like Roma, American Honey and the florida project. Thanks.
I recently watched the “Before” Trilogy by Linklater. I absolutely loved these movies, because they were based mainly on deep (I know some would argue that, but I consider them deep) conversations between main characters. Can’t find similar movies, so I’m asking for your recommendations/similar ones.
Also: if somebody wants to recommend movies with similar character types, I’ll also appreciate that (young, part-idealistic, part-romantic looking for their identity (but not “teenager movies”, you know))
What would you say are the influences on the mumblecore movement?
Currently I am investigating the roots of the movement, for the moment I have written down the obvious references: Cassavettes, Linklater, Nouvelle vague, Eric Rohmer and independent cinema from the 90s (in general terms)
But I don't know if there are other more hidden references I'm overlooking
Looking for that downtempo jammer sound that’s so hip right now. Not a synthwave or ambien module sound but one of those little putters you could watch someone mope down the street to, say, after a breakup (still an optimistic beat tho). We have unlimited money. Thanks fam.
Hey guys, I think I've taken a liking to Mumblecore films. Recently watched American Honey and Frances Ha and both of these films really did it for me. Getting a snapshot of a characters life without any real destination is captivating for me. Would like to try out more films in this genre, available on streaming preferably.
Unscramble these mumblecore rapper names to match an NBA player:
Example: Ol' Blob => Bol Bol
[1] El P Alantic => u/ShoutOutTo_Caboose and u/rollmefurtherbitch69
[2] Rebel Lady Ba => u/6GodInTraining
[3] Six House Gala Leader Gin => u/6GodInTraining
[4] Lil Cash Pacer => u/IheartMagikarp
Hi all. I'm a big fan of the films of Kelly Reichardt, Paterson (2016), the novel Taipei (2013) by Tao Lin, etc. I've always found these to fall under the mumblecore bracket, though I haven't thoroughly explored the genre as yet. What are some of the essential mumblecore films/novels I should be checking out?
Thank you!
I kind of missed this era when they first hit in the very early '00s. It seems like the last gasp of ultra-low-budget stuff that could still get mainstream attention. I've always believed that if stuff like Clerks or Funny Ha Ha came out today, it'd get just a modicum of attention on YouTube and then be quickly forgotten.
What's everyone's opinions on mumblecore? I think it's kind of interesting that these super-unprofessional looking and sounding movies got a lot of their creators steady paying gigs. A lot of stuff posted here is concerned with the "tech" or the professionalism of how something looks and sounds, but man, even just watching the trailer for Funny Ha Ha, the people behind it had no other motivation than "screw waiting, let's make a movie."
I'm using 'mumblecore' very loosely here, I'm just talking about those films that have very meandering almost nonexistent plots and are very dialogue/character focused,
i.e. films in this vein
Diner
Kicking and Screaming / Frances Ha
Everybody Wants Some / Before Series
Metropolitan
etc
I'm not sure how exactly to define this type of film, but I do feel it kind of is its own little genre. The dialogue is usually very snappy, characters are intelligent/nihilistic/narcissistic but not always. Figuring out what to do with one's life is usually a theme.- romance, depression, failed ambition, lack of direction, youth. In a broader view you could even include some Altman or a film like Magnolia but that might be stretching it a bit. Swingers even
Thanks
Made in 2005 and largely unseen at the time, Mutual Appreciation is playing for a few more days on the U.S. iteration of the MUBI streaming service. It's been restored and looks amazing.
Having watched it last night I feel compelled to give it some love. To call it 'naturalistic', 'slice of life', or some such documentary-esque term belies its transformative magic. Detailing 20-something uncertainty without, somehow, betraying a trace of angst, it's a film of the rarest warmth & authenticity; the kind of film that reinvigorates my being in the world, because it casts even quotidian interactions as lively sites of discovery and creation.
This was Bujalski's sophomore film, and actually coincided with the (delayed) release of his debut, Funny Ha Ha. At the time these films possessed a kind of Velvet Underground disjuncture of obscurity and influence: super low budget films that were little seen but nonetheless highly influential to aspiring filmmakers, and central to the emergence of the whole 'mumblecore' phenomenon.
To take but one example, the title of Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha is almost certainly a nod to Bujalski's debut, and it very closely resembles Mutual Appreciation: a B&W film about young adults living in New York without much money, wracked with uncertainty and struggling to channel their aimless ambitions. Frances Ha even employs the same bracing editing, frequently pulling us out of scenes in media res.
But all this influence feels secondary to Mutual Appreciation itself. There are scenes where the dialogue, performances, and filmmaking had me vocalising my joy and enthusiasm for the film and its characters. As someone who watches films almost daily, I can't remember the last time I had that response.
For me, Mutual Appreciation and Funny Ha Ha establish Bujalski as a singular kind of humanist, and one of the 21st century's greatest filmmakers.
I was interested in what others thought of the rise of mumblecore films. I enjoy it in part because the shoe-string style of film making allows for films to be made that other wise would never see the light of day. It also provides an outlet for some very exciting young filmmakers to show their work to the world. It is not entirely an original idea though, because the Danish film movement, Dogme 95, used many of the same principles. I know it is difficult for some people to enjoy the films due to their unprofessional look.
howdy!
take the recent netflix film Paddleton for instance. a 20 page script. mostly improvised w/ single camera coverage.
how do they film multiple angles of the same conversation in a scene? the close ups, mids, and wides. Most other films of this category usually don't vacillate between the 3 as much. i understand when they say its improvised it doesn't actually mean they're going into the film cold without any objective in a scene but how are they capturing the running dialogue. when they shoot a wide and cut into the closeup are they literally having the actors try to come up with similar lines from the wide or is it literally changing each time?
bit of an odd question but we would love to be enlightened !
So I have seen some of the works of Bujalski, Swanberg, Duplass Brothers, and some others and want to explore more but I'm looking for the creme de la creme. Just imagine if I hired you to program the 5 best mumblecore films at a festival. What films would you pick?
Edit: The Top 5 mumblecore films are Funny Ha Ha, Frances Ha, Bellflower, Drinking Buddies, and You Me and Everyone We Know
I'm a great fan of Mumblecore films and would like to find books that could be similar, something that could probably remind of J.D. Salinger or Sally Rooney. Feel free to suggest anything that makes you think of it!
A group of teenagers hang out for the night and have to deal with one of them having a bad trip.
My first ever feature. Went with more of a dialogue-over-plot approach. All feedback would be fantastic. Either comment on the Google Drive PDF or just leave a comment here. Thank you :)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HlY1U8Ij4CuC2IxBDjKZngz-YdzxJjIY
