Funny Ha Ha (2002) follows recently unemployed Marnie who spends her days hanging out with friends, trying out unsatisfying temp positions, and trying to get with an unavailable love interest. It is dreary and certainly not a comedy. Mutual Appreciation (2005) is slightly better, focusing on Alan, a musician who moves to New York to pursue his rock and roll career. They could both be Dogma films and feature naturalistic performances and dialogue that has an improvisational and realistic feel with awkward pauses, circumlocutions and apologies but unfortunately none if it is at all interesting. They completely reflect a banal, mundane and boring reality without making any kind of point. They are both like a remake of Reality Bites by Mike Leigh or Linklater circa Slacker. It’s about as meaningful as actually hanging out with some nice but uninteresting average 20 year olds or watching Big Brother or Coffee and Cigarettes. They are part of a film ‘movement’ known as mumblecore, which is a fitting moniker, though it is worrying that there are other films as unimaginative as these out there.
0.5/5
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