Funny Haha

It pisses me off a little when films are aligned with hipster/indie credentials. I don't want great films to be associated with crap twee music and sentimental rubbish. Films should be able to exist in their own right, without the interference of this pollution.

The makers of Funny Haha, namely Andrew Bujalski, seems to have almost made the film equivalent of a Los Campesinos! song. Overly self conscious, twee, pretentious, and riddled with mumbling, feeble characters. But it kinda works. It was fairly watchable, had a nice flow to it and at times I did feel myself sympathising for the main character Marnie. Having said that, my main gripe is that there appears to be some scene emerging form this, Mumblecore. I don't feel comfortable with the idea that mumbling, feeble characters should be the core of a film scene.

I watched 'In search of a midnight kiss', a little while back, which has also been linked with the mumblecore scene. That film fared better because there was more of a storyline, more rounded performances and actual humour. I didn't find anything funny in this film. It was pretty mopey. The issues in the film were irritating- I don't really care about playground gossip, which this film basically relied on. If I was to compare it to other films, I would have to say it's like a crap Cassavete's film (in that's it very lofi and improvisational) or Eric Rohmer film (in that it follows a melancholic young woman wandering aimlessly). Rohmer's films are actually very articulate and interesting though, where this is mostly mumbled nonsense. People don't really talk like this in real life.

6/10