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Mutual Appreciation (2005)

tomatometer

88

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 51
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 6

Director Bujalski continues to give cinematic voice to awkward, literate twentysomethings with noteworthy smarts and tenderness.

94

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 1

Director Bujalski continues to give cinematic voice to awkward, literate twentysomethings with noteworthy smarts and tenderness.

audience

71

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 3,237

My Rating

Movie Info

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.

R, 1 hr. 48 min.

Drama, Comedy

Andrew Bujalski

Feb 13, 2007

Goodbye Cruel World

Cast

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (6) | DVD (2)

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.

November 24, 2006 Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

November 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mutual Appreciation appropriates a seemingly improvised vérité style that's ideal for a cast of characters of no tremendous ambition.

October 20, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There is no denying the director-screenwriter's ability to capture a certain real-life quality on film.

October 6, 2006 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You'll either be bored or fascinated by the Cassavetes-like reality of it all.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

The grainy, black-and-white look and the characters' ethos dovetail perfectly.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent | Comment
Independent

The focus is narrow, but its scrutiny is absolutely unerring.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

Every scene in Bujalski's films is a little awkward, and just right.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

Bujalski perfectly skewers what you might call the "sort-of" generation: educated, mid-20s white Americans hemmed in by their own non-committal uncertainty.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

The painful honesty and geeky cool draws you in, but the film's sweet-natured humour seals the deal.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

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.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Bujalski is a shrewd comic observer, and astute enough a director to get the most of his engaging actors.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Just because you shoot semi-improvised scenes in black-and-white doesn't mean you're the new Jim Jarmusch.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

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.

May 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The dark side of a Waldorf education.

January 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | Comment
Film Freak Central

Just because it's like real life doesn't mean it's inherently interesting.

December 8, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

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.

December 8, 2006 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

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.

December 8, 2006 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | Comment
Jam! Movies

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.

December 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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.

December 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Mutual Appreciation

Painfully film school project about narcissistic artists dong nothing in particular.

December 21, 2007
gor41
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

October 22, 2007
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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