Later Gs
Joshua
Friday, March 12, 2010
Mumblecore is going places
So, American Director Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) has a new film coming out and guess who he casted next to Ben Stiller? Greta Gerwig from (mostly) Joe Swanberg's films (LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends). She's worked with other directors, mostly mumbercore. But i was pretty shocked to see a trailer for Greenberg and see her and Ben Stiller being hip and awkward together. She's a fine actor, and I'm glad she's got a chance to act in a film outside of a dying genre. Yes mumblecore is dying, only because, now, people are trying to make "mumblecore" films, rather than just making films that turns out with a certain moral to the process and product. This is why Dogma films are mostly is a failures. Yeah, I said it Matt. (OK, back to Greenberg for a second, one of the Duplass brothers is also in the film...he has been getting a handful of work outside his own films, even outside of mumblecore... I like his acting). But, yeah Mumblecore. I feel like its loose scripting of a story and loose interpretations of scenes where at first brave and unexpected, pushing past the intimacy a camera usually is allowed to linger on a scene without action or something crazy happening, instead it focuses wide on the scene (Even in close and mid shots), letting the little stuff amplify. That tension and awkward feeling was a blessing to cinema, but now, watching newer stuff, I find that that tension is gone, because I expect it. I've seen it. I know that it will push at the boundaries of "too long" and "too awkward" and it is no longer exciting or fresh, but becomes that mundane version of its former self. I'm calling you mumblecore directors (And I'm sorry to those who don't identity as such, but a lumped in--I like that you don't) to move away from this expectation and start pushing other boundaries. There's room to further blur the line between fiction and the real (Goddard/Kiarostami are masters at this). Let the camera sit. Stop hand-holding everything. Stitch it into the scene. The camera's presence as hand-held is attributing to the expectation that is no longer interesting. Trying something new. Use a dolly, use a tripod. Make something that you haven't made. Take your canon further. I don't want to see eight-hundred versions of LOL or Puffy Chair. I didn't see that many 400 blows, Truffaut pushed past that, and developed his canon into something grand, where the range was wide, and that guy made Day for Night.
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4 comments:
Oh, this is what you were talking about yesterday. I understand.
I enjoyed Quiet City and to a lesser extent, Puffy Chair. But where lies the "core" in mumblecore? Personally, I think "Slackavetes" is a much better genre tag.
Yes, Slackavetes is much better, however, the link to cassavetes lies in the indie-spirit and loose direction (meaning there is always room to take the scene anywhere), however, I feel like a lot these films sort of fumble along, sort of flow through till the end and the tension that could course through the scenes become almost expectable. Does that make sense Dave? the name actually comes from a joke the sound guy of the first mumblecore film said (Funny Haha), he said the sound is hard to capture sound cause no one knows how to pronounce. It's mumblecore, he said. (or something like that). The funny thing about it, is that the term is imposed by critics and outsiders, and the filmmakers themselves are not that fond of the term. Most of them hate it. They just want to make films about being young, aimless, and stupid. But things fit together because they offering some of the same things. Anyway.
-Joshua
I don't think Cassavetes would be too fond the the comparison, except for the spirit of the pseudo-movement, and would probably say, "These kids don't really do anything." While this apathy is sort of part of the context within all these films, Cassavetes would want that complicated and challenged. Imagine "A Woman Under the Influence" with the characters from Quiet City. Yuck. Though, I did love those films.
I understand what your saying with the lack of real connection with Cassavetes' work. Apathy often seems like a cliche to pull out to make shit appear indie and cool. Not to downplay the importance of issues like isolation and feeling disconnected, but Cassavetes' work definitely illustrated those things in a way that was very much alive and not so (for a lack of a better word) passive. I guess Clint Eastwood was right - we're a generation of pussies.
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