FREE THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY THE OFFICAL GFF DAILY GUIDE
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WHAT’S INSIDE? 2 — CINESKINNY’S PICKS OF THE FESTIVAL The unmissable films of the festival, as chosen by The CineSkinny’s writers 2 — FEATURE: HIGH PLACES Interview with electro-pop duo Rob Barber and Mary Pearson, kicking off the Glasgow Music and Film Festival 3 — REVIEWS Red Dog ★★★ This Is Not a Film ★★★★★ The Kid with a Bike ★★★★★ 4 — WHAT’S NEW ONLINE The latest news, comments and pictures from the festival
GFF 2012: RECLAIMING MUMBLECORE
4 — COMPETITION Win tickets to see acclaimed documentary This Is Not a Film by answering one simple question
Is there any sub-genre more misunderstood than mumblecore? Director Lynn Shelton’s YOUR SISTER’S SISTER is another film gem that fits the mumblecore M.O., so we’ve decided to reclaim this maligned moniker, writes JAMIE DUNN CRITICS LOVE to give films labels – I apologise on behalf of my reductive brethren – but more often than not these categorisations can be on-thenose and quite useful. Is there a better phrase than ‘torture porn’ to describe the wave of grizzly horrors that proliferated in the mid-aughts? And how would critics be able to properly review any of Seth Rogen’s oeuvre without the word ‘bromance’? As sub-genre titles go, however, ‘mumblecore’ is rather unfortunate. Critics aren’t to blame for this one though. Coined by sound mixer Eric Masunaga while chatting to a journalist at the South By Southwest (SXSW) film festival about the movies he’d recently worked on (Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation), the name stuck and has become synonymous with the work of a group of American independent filmmakers working on minuscule budgets with a lo-fi aesthetic. Lynn Shelton, director of tonight’s opening gala, Your Sister’s Sister, is one of the sub-genre’s most talented practitioners. But the clumsy ‘mumblecore’ doesn’t really do justice
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to these low-key, and often fantastic, films. First of all, the actors don’t mumble. Their dialogue tends to be semiimprovised, meaning mumblecore characters talk with the same elliptical inarticulateness to which we’re all prone. David Denby puts it nicely in his New Yorker essay Youthquake: “In the films I’ve seen, the sound is quite clear. It’s the emotions that mumble.” Given that the films tend to be coreless, in the sense that narratives follow a more lyrical structure in a style at odds with mainstream cinema’s rigid plotting, the second half of the moniker is just as dubious. If we were to label Shelton’s previous film Humpday, the aforementioned bromance would actually be more apposite. A riotously funny comedy about two heterosexual men (one played by Your Sister’s Sister’s lead Mark Duplass) who dare themselves to have sex, it was that rarest of things: a crossover mumblecore hit. Its mainstream success is even more surprising given that it breaks the long-established Hollywood rule that
the protagonists in buddy movies keep their obvious sexual desires under wraps – see Red River, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Top Gun, Point Break, and that peerless homoerotic romp Tango & Cash. (If you also happen to be a heterosexual male watching Humpday with a platonic male friend, the term ‘torture porn’ would also apply.) The problem is, I can’t think of a phrase that would be an obvious replacement. These films are essentially romantic comedies with all the telephoned character clichés removed and all of life’s prickly awkwardness brought into the mix. Unfortunately, ‘awk-coms’ just doesn’t have the right ring. So lets reclaim ‘mumblecore’, Glasgow! Lets shout the names of these small American indie wonders from the rooftops. But remember: enunciate. LYNN SHELTON’S YOUR SISTER’S SISTER SCREENS 16 FEB AND 17 FEB AS PART OF GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2012 FIND THE CINESKINNY IN THE FOYER OF THE GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL AND OTHER PARTICIPATING VENUES
4 — WHAT DO YOU THINK? Your tweets
Produced by The Skinny magazine in association with the Glasgow Film Festival Editor Designer Subeditors
Jamie Dunn Sean Anderson Becky Bartlett David McGinty
GFF BOX OFFICE Order tickets from the box office at glasgowfilm.org/festival or call 0141 332 6535 or visit Glasgow Film Theatre 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB
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THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 1