Alan's (Justin Rice) band, the Bumblebees, has recently broken up after releasing an EP that got some attention. Alan has moved to Brooklyn, where he is trying to get solo gigs, and spending a lot of time with his old friend Lawrence (Andrew Bujalski, the film's writer/director) and Lawrence's girlfriend, Ellie (Rachel Clift). Alan quickly books a gig at hip Brooklyn club Northsix, and does a radio interview with Sara (Seung-Min Lee), during which he mentions that he doesn't even have a drummer.
As luck would have it, Sara's brother, Dennis (Kevin Micka), is a drummer. Sara also makes it clear that she's attracted to Alan, which creates a problem when he decides he doesn't want to get involved with her. On the night of his gig, a friend of Alan's father with purported record-industry connections shows up, and invites Alan, Sara, and Dennis to his well-appointed apartment. Afterward, Alan drunkenly goes to a party where he was supposed to meet Lawrence and Ellie. As it turned out, they didn't make it, but a trio of women there (including one played by Kate Dollenmayer, who starred in Bujalski's debut feature, Funny Ha Ha), also drunk, have their own plans for him. Eventually, the unspoken attraction between Alan and Ellie comes to the fore. Mutual Appreciation was shot in black-and-white, and was a hit on the festival circuit before its theatrical release in September of 2006. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Alan, Lawrence and Ellie, intersecting here and there with a circle of acquaintances and strangers, insinuate themselves into the viewer's heart like good friends.
Shooting in black-and-white 16mm, Bujalski nods to the pre-Sundance personal cinema of the '50s and '60s. His little circle of pals, though, offers little to outsiders looking in.
The film's mood and style are pitched somewhere between '60s American indie and French New Wave and, as you watch these people, they seem painfully, amusingly on-target.
The kind of movie whose dialogue mostly hews to the rhythms of 'like, you know, whatever' but then occasionally throws in a word such as 'puissance.' And, like, it totally works.
Bujalski perfectly skewers what you might call the "sort-of" generation: educated, mid-20s white Americans hemmed in by their own non-committal uncertainty.
Indebted to the films of Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes, Bujalski invests this love triangle with real empathy for his bumbling, hyper-articulate characters, and a sly, edgy humour.
Despite their lackadaisical impression, the pictures are quite tightly structured: each scene covers emotional and narrative distance. Funny, forgiving, credible and deft, they offer much to appreciate.
To capture the mundane rhythms of everyday existence without being tedious is a tough task, which makes the difficulties [director] Bujalski has had getting his films distributed a puzzling and frustrating thing.
Already an indie fan favourite thanks to the no-budget romp Funny Ha Ha, director Andrew Bujalski here slays the sophomore slump with another scruffy but bang-on look at life in the slow lane.
The shaggy honesty is bracing and the modest stories of young adults too tentative and nervous to do more than talk around an issue have a perceptive authenticity that doesn't shake off easily.
It certainly doesn't help that these characters just aren't worth a two-hour investment. Unless you're a fan of independent music, there's little chance you'll want to spend that much time with them.
Painfully film school project about narcissistic artists dong nothing in particular.
December 21, 2007
Gordon A
Super Reviewer
In "Mutual Appreciation," Alan(Justin Rice) has just moved to New York from Boston after the breakup of his band, the Bumblebees. Once there, he looks up an old friend, Lawrence(Andrew Bujalski, who also wrote, directed and edited), who lives with his girlfriend, Ellie(Rachel Clift). Needing a guitarist for an
upcoming gig, Alan finds one through a frisky DJ, Sara(Seung-Min Lee). "Mutual Appreciation" is about the awkwardness of youth where anything is possible and full responsibility has not yet kicked in. The movie is slightly agreeable before falling into a familiar trap late. And while I encourage low budget independent filmmaking, there should still be a certain level of storytelling skills and convincing performances which are not the case here.
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