Avis des critiques

While in the end we are not entirely sure whether the quartet will ever finish making their Baghead, the Duplasses certainly finish theirs: a charming love letter to films made by friends for very little money.

There are better movies to be seen. Thousands. Their budget was ... low. Yes, I think I sensed they used improvisation.

They handle their quartet of actors playing actors with wit, compassion and terrific finesse; as the brothers told me in our conversation, the target of their satire is not other wannabe-famous filmmakers but themselves and their friends.

Whatever your opinion of mumblecore, the indie subgenre that Jay and Mark Duplass helped invent, there is no doubt that the Duplass brothers, a writing and directing team, have sophisticated radar trained on the undercurrents of contemporary relationships. The shallow, crabby characters in their second feature film, “Baghead,” are uncomfortably recognizable.

Baghead’s use of improvised dialogue and deliberately rough editing have led to its classification as a “mumblecore” film... But the movie’s concern with its characters’ shifting alliances and petty vanities also evokes early John Sayles and, at times, Eric Rohmer... What we’d been watching all along as a campy horror spoof turns out to be a soulful little comedy about friendship, betrayal, and the fear of revealing who you really are—whether or not there’s a grocery sack on your head.

Their fiendishly clever follow-up, Baghead, pokes merciless fun at the very same DIY aesthetic that called it into existence, wondering aloud whether there's a certain creative bankruptcy to a bunch of friends getting together and deciding to make a movie.

The Duplass brothers succeed by making a movie about a group of aspiring actors and their muddy relationships... The brothers are master strategists.