Eat My Shorts: The Mumblecore Crowd

You might have heard the term "mumblecore" recently and are wondering where it came from and what it means. I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Here's what I know: In 2005, Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation) gave an interview to IndieWIRE in which he mentioned the term "mumblecore" as a name for a new indie-film movement. (The term allegedly came from Eric Masunga, the sound mixer on Bujalski's Funny Ha-Ha.) At SXSW this year, the term "mumblecore" was invoked everywhere -- the cast of Joe Swanberg's film Hannah Takes the Stairs included several mumblecore filmmakers, and SXSW Film Festival head Matt Dentler called the film "the blockbuster of this movement." Aaron Hillis actually created a groovy chart that linked many of the mumblecore gang together on different projects. But none of this is giving you a clear definition, is it?

As I see it (and you should feel free to correct me), "mumblecore" refers to a group of American filmmakers who tend to work on each other's movies, and whose films are performance-based and focus on the everyday problems, often about relationships, of middle-class twentysomethings. Some examples besides the above-mentioned films might include Susan Buice and Arin Crumley's 2005 feature Four-Eyed Monsters; The Puffy Chair, from brothers Jay and Mark Duplass; and Orphans, Ry Russo-Young's film that won a special jury award at SXSW this year (Buice and Russo-Young are in the minority as female filmmakers among the mumblecore guys).

So this week's Eat My Shorts includes a sampling of films from some of the Mumblecorps, as the group is also called, mostly from their earlier filmmaking days. Every short film on the following list ties in with one of the others -- the editor of one may be the director of another and the star of a third. These shorts tend to be funny rather than angst-y, but with some genuine emotion behind the laughs at times. Whether you're mumblecore or working on your own shorts, feel free to email me links to any shorts available to watch online: shorts AT cinematical DOT com.

• Seen -- Jacob Vaughan (Dear Pillow, The Cassidy Kids) has been posting some of his early filmmaking efforts to his blog. Vaughan and Bryan Poyser (same films as above) made this short during a film production class at UT, along with The Puffy Chair director Jay Duplass. The attempts to move back and forth in time ala Pulp Fiction don't quite work, but it's still interesting to see something these three guys did together back in school.
• This is John -- Jay and Mark Duplass made this short almost on a whim, because they'd been thwarted in making a feature film and just wanted to shoot and finish something, anything. It's a simple, ultra-low-budget film -- one man trying to deal with his answering machine -- but hilarious enough to play Sundance and SXSW in 2003. Edited by David Zellner.
• Quasar Hernandez -- This short film (pictured at top) from brothers David and Nathan Zellner (who both also had small roles in The Cassidy Kids) is funny at times but has an oddly touching ending. I'm always impressed when short filmmakers on a budget can find good child actors, like the one playing Craig in this short, who finds that his "Big Brother" Jim has some startling news. The quality of the online short is excellent; I'd love to see this film in a larger format.
  
• Thanks for the ADD -- Scroll down about two-thirds down the Wholphin page to find this short film from Joe Swanberg, starring Greta Gerwig and Kent Osbourne. Swanberg decided to shoot this short as a way for Gerwig and Osbourne to feel comfortable working together before making the feature Hannah Takes the Stairs ... which also stars Mark Duplass.
• Momma's Boy -- This hilariously mean short about family dynamics from filmmaker John Bryant played Sundance in 2006. Bryant isn't on Hillis's Mumblecore chart, but he's producing the Duplass brothers' latest film, Baghead, in which Greta Gerwig has a role. Bryant also worked as crew on The Puffy Chair.