It’s probably about time you met
Andrew Bujalski, but I’ll dish a little before he
shows up so it’s not a totally blind date. The Boston-based filmmaker has
crafted two low-budget, 16mm affairs that have made
quiet yet deep splashes in the world of independent cinema and earned him
comparisons to mortal gods with names like Cassavetes,
Jarmusch, and Leigh.
Bujalski,
who writes, directs, edits, and acts in his films, will be in attendance at the
Dryden Theatre on Friday, February 10, to introduce his most recent work, Mutual
Appreciation, and field questions following the screening. Whether that
hardcore DIY approach will also compel him to knit mittens for the entire
audience I can’t really say.
Shot in austere black and white, Mutual Appreciation takes place in the
hipster enclave of Williamsburg and
follows a newly arrived singer-songwriter named Alan (Justin Rice) as he tries
to conquer the Brooklyn music scene. His sole allies in
this strange land are fellow transplanted Bostonians Ellie (Rachel Clift) and her boyfriend Lawrence (Bujalski),
though Alan also has a newfound champion in Sara (Seung-Min
Lee), an aggressive DJ who sets her sights on the submissively uninterested
Alan (but finds a drummer for him). Alan, naturally, grows increasingly fond of
the already attached Ellie, and the appreciation is, well, mutual. What could
be a formulaic setup, however, Bujalski handles in a
way that’s anything but cliché.
As with his first film, Funny Ha Ha (more on that one later), Bujalski supplies what is
obviously a cast of his friends with the most spartan
of scripts, allowing them the liberty to improvise. That’s the only explanation
for the organic interactions on the screen and the often funny, sometimes
awkward, always authentic dialogue emitting from the speakers. Most movies
feature beautiful people saying ultra-clever things about only the most
important of subjects.
Bujalski
employs ordinary-looking folks who are not always the most coherent and
concise, though they know what they’re talking about, and we do, too, because
that’s how we communicate. But it’s not quirky for quirk’s sake, a trap that
ensnares a frustrating number of independent films. Bujalski
conveys his notions about love, gender, and commitment in the slyest of ways
and with a gifted eye for composition.
Funny Ha Haunspools a couple days after Mutual Appreciation, and Bujalski offers
this romantic comedy from a female perspective. Marnie
(Kate Dollenmayer), adorable despite her wilty hair and tombstone teeth, is in her mid 20s, between
jobs and boyfriends, and she could use a little direction. The guy she’s been
not-so-secretly crushing on has recently broken up with his girlfriend, but his
varied and self-serving reactions to her do nothing to help Marnie’s
situation. There’s someone at her temping position who is interested (he’s
played by Bujalski), though his squirm-inducing and
passive-aggressive moves demonstrate that his experience with women is wanting.
Marnie’s search for significance and purpose propels Funny Ha Ha,
and Bujalski’s debut feature exhibits all the promise
that he follows up on in Mutual Appreciation.
Nearly anyone can relate to the
lackadaisical yet well-meaning Marnie and her
friends, and this affinity caused me to remain completely riveted to and
entertained by a film that has little in the way of plot but much in the way of
heart and truth. My favorite aspect of both Funny
Ha Ha and Mutual
Appreciation is the way Bujalski ends the films
virtually in mid-conversation, exiting the lives of his characters as quickly
and with as little fanfare as he entered them. Movies work best when you can
imagine them continuing in the same vein even though you’re not watching.
What’s shocking, to be honest, is
that Bujalski’s brand of candid and sincere
filmmaking is so difficult to do right. It seems like it would be the easiest
way to break into Hollywood: Write
parts for your friends, have your mom make some sandwiches, turn on the camera,
and then clear a place on the kitchen counter for the fruit basket from Jerry
Bruckheimer.
What will Bujalski
do when the studios start throwing money at him? Could he maintain a relatively
artistic sensibility like Richard Linklater or would
he sell out like Wayne Wang? Can he spend his career fashioning gritty and
graceful movies outside the studio system like the above-mentioned icons of indieimprov? And will he make me
a scarf to match my mittens?
Mutual Appreciation (NR), directed
by Andrew Bujalski, shows Friday, February 10, at 8 p.m., and Funny Ha Ha (NR), also directed by Andrew Bujalski, shows Sunday,
February 12, at 7 p.m. Both screenings
are at the George Eastman House’s Dryden Theatre.
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2006.
