I hope it dies a quick death. Those are just my hopes, though.
This reminded me of a thread I want to start! Good work.
Oh, and I don’t know what the future of mumblecore is. I like some mumblecore and hate other mumblecore. I sort of wish it wasn’t considered a genre, but whatareyagonnado.
Mumblecore is the most retarded piece of hipster lingo I have ever heard. I hope everyone involved in it will go away.
Does anyone think Noah Baumbach’s films fit in this category?
I loved “Puffy Chair” and “Baghead” so i will try and see the films mentioned above.
I had the misfortune of seeing Kissing on the Mouth at a film festival. It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Friends who have seen Joe Swanberg’s later films tell me they are even worse. Hopefully, I will never find out for myself if this is true. It actually made me almost nostalgic for the awful microbudget indie films of the early 1990s. Is it possible that Joe Swanberg makes Kevin Smith seem like a talented filmmaker in comparison?
Noah Baumbach, whether you like him or not, certainly does not fit this category. Kelly Reichardt might.
Reichardt might be close, but no, not mumblecore.
I doubt true mumblecore has much of a future, because as a style it’s pretty limited. There’s nowhere to expand to. I doubt that it could ever be co-opted by the mainstream simply because the design of mumblecore films is so crude.
For my money, “The Puffy Chair”, “Mutual Appreciation”, and “Dance Party, U.S.A” make up the best expressions of mumblecore. Other films have been tedious at best.
Considering it’s the worst genre of film known to man, it would be best to end.
Josh, User, Cornica:
I’d love to hear some reasons why. Please support your statements.
Mumblecore practitioners wear their artless incompetence, laziness and smug self-satisfaction like badges of pride. I think that’s reason enough why to hate it.
Marko I was going to, but then I read Ari’s beautiful sentence summing up exactly how I feel. Well done sir.
>>the “genre” of film and video that is rapidly gaining momentum<<
If by that you mean it’s encouraged a number of people with enough money on their credit card but a minimal amount of talent to take up “film-making” …
Ok, so we have a definition of Mumblecore, but who are its practitioners? Are Joshua and Ben Safdie Mumblecore? Is Ronald Bronstein? On the strength of interviews, I intend to see the Safdies “Go Get Some Rosemary”, and for sure, Bronstein’s “Frownland”, once seen is not easily forgotten. Is Andrew Bujalski one? The Duplass brothers another? The despised Joe Swanberg? Does anyone begin a journey as an artist with “incompetence, laziness and smug self-satisfaction” as a path? I can only single out Bujalski and Bronstein as being larger than that. I haven’t seen any work by the others. I also haven’t the sense that this is a genre (which I don’t believe it is, really) that is gaining momentum.
I’ll tell you what’s gaining momentum, a kind of Doofus cinema which we’re seeing spread like kudzu across the American multi-plex landscape, and which bothers me a very great deal more than any supposed Mumblecore effort.
Ari:
you wrote, “Mumblecore practitioners wear their artless incompetence, laziness and smug self-satisfaction like badges of pride.”
Can you expand on that please? Perhaps some specific examples from some supposed mumblecore films?
Like one speed bikes.The genre for “hipsters”
Isn’t “Mumblecore” a character in the Harry Potter movies?
Thanks a lot, Brooklyn. For nuttin’.
“Isn’t “Mumblecore” a character in the Harry Potter movies?”
Well, the last one was particularly dreary and full of people exchanging vaguely portentous mutterings until the movie saw fit to just sort of stop, yes, but I’m not sure if that counts.
Just plain hipsters..from funny shit to mutual crap..it will fade away..soon…
I am greatly interested in seeing Bujalski’s films. I don’t think many of the so-called practitioners of this genre consider themselves to be working with the genre. Some of these films may be amateurish but an amateur finding their way can be more exhilarating than a bored professional trotting out the same old stylistic flourishes. I’ll take a rambling narrative about character’s who occasionally mumble and seem unsure of themselves over a 45 minute DePalma tracking shot ending in a silly gunshot anyday. The trailer for Bujalski’s new film looks a million times more interesting to me that the new Coens, QT, Burton, etc. Well, at least a hundred times.
I don’t know about the future, but Bujalski’s “Beeswax” is maybe the best movie ever made by a “mumblecore dude”. In fact, Bujalski has alwasys been far away from the rest of his partners. “Funny Ha Ha” and “Mutual Appreciation” are really good movies and i think it doesn’t have a comparision with other mumblecore films. Bujalski, I think, is already out of the “mumblecore label”.-
For the other hand, this year I watch a lot of great Indie films from USA. “The Pleasure Of Being Robbed” by the John Safdie it’s a good one and I can’t wait for see his new one “Go Get Some Rosemary”. “Humpday” seems pretty good also.
And I don’t know, I guess “Baghead” from the Duplass Brothers is kinda the last great movie of the movement. That movie was for me like the funeral of the mumblecore.
Based on what I’ve seen it’s more like mumble*snore*.
Oh God, not this thread again. This genre will fade away. I don’t take any pride in saying that, it’s just what it is. I don’t see it busting into the mainstream any time soon, it seems to be just a fad.
“I don’t see it busting into the mainstream any time soon”
Now i’m really interested.
“I’ll take a rambling narrative about character’s who occasionally mumble and seem unsure of themselves over a 45 minute DePalma tracking shot ending in a silly gunshot anyday.”
Co-sign.
Mike Spence, have you seen “Frownland”?
What is the future of mumblecore? Hopefully, short and painful. Whenever people say that this is the “next New Wave,” I cringe.
you all make me smile, thank you.
Much as I’ve despised all the so-called mumblecore I’ve seen (and even the borderline mumblecore like Old Joy), this review below made me curious. I generally like Andrew O’Hehir so I think I may actually check it out. At the very lease, it also proclaims mumblecore’s demise)
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/08/06/beeswax/index.html
I started trying to write a Mumblecore, but instead I ended up with something completely different and hopefully better. Although, if I ever write this script, I think it will end up making fun of Mumblecore. Trying to decide if I should stick with this or finish my novel. It is a decision I struggle with every day. Yikes. :(
Allison, at least you have the gumption to do these things. I have a hard time wearing shoes.
do both. do both in a way that no one else but you could do them.
Squiffle
Yes, mumblecore, the “genre” of film and video that is rapidly gaining momentum and becoming the new indie thang. Will it become co-opted by the mainstream? Or will it just fade away?
For the record, I really like mumblecore. The mumbly films I’ve seen thus far (Kissing on the Mouth, Funny Ha-ha, Hannah Takes the Stairs) were all sloppy and slapdash in weirdly compelling ways.