In the last year, not only have i been able to make it through an entire mumblecore-related movie without rolling my eyes or throwing my hands up in a "what the fuck?!" gesture, but I've had some pretty positive things to say about a few of the movies as well. Don't get me wrong, i still for the life of me can't see what legitimate critics like Roger Ebert and elitist prick Ray Carney see in this film scene overall. Are we (the American movie audience) so desperate for a relevant film movement to call our own (which in my opinion we haven't had since the 90's independent renaissance, led by filmmakers like soderbergh, gus van sant, spike lee, tarrantino, jim jarmusch, the coens and kevin smith) that we'll just accept anything, compare it to the works of john cassavetes and terrnace mallick and call it brilliant? Is it the pressure for the American independent/arthouse scene to keep up and compete with other countries who have still managed to maintain some solid film movements in recent years like France's "new french extremism" (baise moi, pola x, the piano teacher, irreversible, i stand alone, etc) or Denmark's dogma 95 (which hasn't been THAT popular in the last 8-10 years, but still...). Or even Asian countries like Korea and Thailand who have been making a HUGE dent in the film world in recent years. If that's the case, i don't see stuff like 'LOL', 'Dance Party USA', 'Mutual Appreciation' or 'Quiety City' standing up to the likes of Korea's 'Old Boy' & 'I Saw The Devil' or France's 'Pola X' & 'L'Humainte'. But 'Cold Weather' (even with its horrible ending) and 'Cyrus' are a nice indication that the mumblecore film scene is maturing and becoming less predictable.
Roger Ebert said that 'Cold Weather' was the best American film of 2010. I don't agree with that at all, especially due to the fact that the movie got completely lazy and pretty much gave up in the last 20 minutes or so, but director Aaron Katz still stepped outside of his comfort zone of movies focusing on 20-something year olds from Portland or Brooklyn, whining & mumbling (like...literally) about their relationships and whatnot. 'Cold Weather' is nothing like that. In fact, its neo-noir. In the film Chris Lankenau, who starred in Katz' previous feature; 'Quiet City', stars as "Doug". A forensics science major who recently dropped out of college to come live with his sister and work in an ice packing factory in Portland (...of course he did) while he's figuring out what he wants to do with his life. Even though he no longer studies forensic science, he still keeps up with it and maintains a fascination for mystery novels & Sherlock Holmes. Later on in the story, his ex-girlfriend (Rachel) happens to be in town for work (...or so she says) and the 2 meet up. As soon as we see Rachel, we can tell something is up by how nervous and edgy she looks, even though she tries her best to hide it. While Doug's ex is in town, she becomes kinda close to Doug's co-worker/DJ buddy Carlos. One night, when Rachel doesn't show up to hang out with him like she was supposed to and stops answering her phone, Carlos jumps to conclusions and assumes something bad has happened to her. With Doug's help (and his knowledge of forensics and mystery novels), they break in to her hotel room, where's she's still nowhere to be found, and they uncover that she actually is in some serious trouble, and she isn't actually in town for work like she said. As it turns out, she was supposed to pay someone a large sum of money, but the briefcase containing the money was stolen. Now Doug, Carlos and Doug's sister have to work together to help Rachel and recover the money.
Hopefully with Aaron Katz' next film (which i do anticipate) he'll take elements of his 2nd to last feature ('Quiet City') which had a troublesome 1st half, but an excellent 2nd half and combine it with elements of 'Cold Weather', which was an extremely solid film up until the very ending, and manage to come up with a great film overall, which in my opinion he has yet to do.
CYRUS
What makes this mumblecore movie stand out over all the other films is that its the first (or at least the first of what I've seen) to deal with characters outside of the typical age-range that these films usually focus on. The main characters are in their 40's, divorced and one is a single parent. No mumblecore-related film that I've seen has yet to focus on any of that along with parenting or the type of dysfunctional relationship between Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei's characters.
In 'Cyrus' John C Reilly plays a lonely guy, who hasn't moved on or had a real relationship since his divorce. At the advice of his ex-wife, he tries his best to get back out there and meet someone. Eventually he does (Marisa Tomei), and they both seem to hit it off real well until Tomei's son (played by Jonah Hill) comes in to the picture. She has no idea that her son isn't the perfect angel that she thinks he is. Hill sees Reilly as a threat, and tries his best to sabotage his mom's relationship so he can have her all to himself. Unfortunately, no one recognizes what Hill is really like except for Reilly. So the 2 of them have to put up a front when they're around Tomei like they're really getting along, but when she's not around, they're at each others throats, essentially competing to win her over
The mother/son relationship in 'Cyrus' is very interesting, odd and...unique. Even though the son is in his 20's, he still needs his mom to pick the vegetables out of his food, sleep in the same bed as him when he has "panic attacks" (which may or may not even be real panic attacks) and they hang out more than a 20-something year old son should hang out with his mother. In fact, he doesn't seem to have any friends (or even a girlfriend for that matter) outside of his mother. There's nothing incestuous between the 2, but its definitely not a normal relationship.
The Duplass brothers managed to maintain their John Cassavetes-influenced/natural looking cinematography (found in their previous films) and this may sound corny, but 'Cyrus' does have a some genuine and touching moments. Yes, as the story unfolds it does get predictable and sure you can see the ending coming from a mile away, but i still enjoyed it very much.
