Mumblecore x 5
By the mid-aughts, the Sundance market had been thoroughly professionalized and corporatized, most of the big-ticket purchases made in Park City the work of canny careerist operators with Hollywood ambitions. But then there was a mutant strain of microbudget movies that had begun to appear around this time which were of a different order altogether; there were no stylistic pyrotechnics here, no whip smart badinage à la Tarantino… in fact the characters in these modest, performance-driven films sometimes seemed to have difficulty cogently articulating a single thought, hence the designation they would eventually be grouped under: “mumblecore.” Twenty years after the opening shots of this quiet—even incoherent at times—revolution in American independent film, we look back at some of its most enduring works, including Joe Swanberg’s "Hannah Takes the Stairs", and Andrew Bujalski’s "Mutual Appreciation", with an exclusive taped conversation from Bujalski to discuss his work and probe the lasting legacy of this most unassuming and introverted “movement.”
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First Films with Andrew Bujalski
Directed by Metrograph | 10 mins | 2025
Andrew Bujalski discusses the making of his first film, "Funny Ha Ha." -
Nights and Weekends
Directed by Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg | 80 mins | 2008
Following the subgenre-crystallizing success of "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (2007), Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig reunited for another low-key, Cassavettes-channeling mumblecore opus. The co-directors, -writers, and -stars play James and Ma... -
Hannah Takes the Stairs
Directed by Joe Swanberg | 83 mins | 2007
Years before she became the billion-dollar "Barbie" girl, Greta Gerwig was perhaps mumblecore’s invaluable utility player, taking on the title role in Swanberg’s largely improvised third feature alongside a cast round out by an all-star lineup of filmmake... -
Mutual Appreciation
Directed by Andrew Bujalski | 109 mins | 2005
Bujalski’s second feature stars Bishop Allen vocalist Justin Rice as a Boston transplant musician freshly arrived in New York, looking for new bandmates while drifting between a noncommittal affair with a radio station DJ (Seung-Min Lee), boozy sessio... -
Funny Ha Ha
Directed by Andrew Bujalski | 90 mins | 2002
The first feature by Bujalski and a veritable manifesto for the lo-fi, DIY, radically modest “mumblecore” movement, "Funny Ha Ha" stars Kate Dollenmayer as Marnie, a 23-year-old recent college graduate in Boston still drinking like a freshman and makin... -
Team Picture
Directed by Kentucker Audley | 61 mins | 2007
Shot in Memphis, Tennessee for a cool $1,500, the amiably ambling "Team Picture" stars Audley—in his debut as feature writer/director—as David, a twentysomething whose total disinterest in anything beyond noodling on his guitar is cause for concern to...
