Baghead (2008)

So I have officially decided that I'm going to take the weekends off from blogging, which is why there were no posts this weekend. So now It's Monday and I'm back with a film that I'm dying to write about. I watched it over the weekend and loved it so much that I analyzed it all weekend. I'm surprised that I only watched one film this weekend but that's how my weekends are sometimes.

The film that I watched is called "Baghead" and it was directed by The Duplass Brothers. Jay and Mark Duplass to be exact. The film stars Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig, and Elise Muller. This film is part of the mumblecore film movement and if you don't know what that is, I'll tell you. Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that is characterized by ultra low budget production focusing on relationships between twenty-somethings or anyone else, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors. It usually involves people talking at length about life and love and it really takes a patient person or an open minded person to watch these films because at times it is just people talking and connecting in the most natural way you can on film. I'm actually a fan of this movement and I connect with it on a deep personal level as a filmmaker. The first mumblecore film I saw was "Funny Ha Ha" directed by Andrew Bujalski and after that I was hooked. There are other directors who are apart of this "movement" as well, such as, Joe Swanberg and Aaron Katz who I love. You'll probably hear more about their films, here, in the future.

Back to Baghead. Baghead is about four actors who go to a cabin in the woods to write, direct, and act in a film that they hope will jump start their careers. They get an idea for a horror film about a guy with a bag over his head terrorizing the characters in the film. It all sounds great until a real bagheaded man shows up. This is a very interesting film for a number of reasons. First off, the actors are phenomenal. They deserve high profile careers. Greta Gerwig, who has been dubbed the mumblecore queen, is wonderful in this. I have to tell you, I am obsessed with her as an actress. There is something about her screen presence that hypnotizes me and I can't put my finger on it. I've seen her in other mumblecore films and there is still one that I haven't seen yet that I can't wait to see called "Nights and Weekends". She is also making her mainstream debut in a new Ben Stiller film this year called "Greenberg". She's very talented and I believe her career will be a successful. Ross Partridge is also an actor that I'm actually surprised isn't in the big leagues yet. He has a leading man quality about him and his performance of an actor desperately trying to break in the biz is flawless. Steve Zissis is charming and funny as a man trying to win over Greta Gerwig's character. He's the guy that never gets the girl and he portrays that very authentically. Elise Muller is an actress that I became curious about as I watched this film. She's very natural and very interesting to watch.

Technically this film is interesting because for a film that was supposedly shot for one thousand dollars, it looks really good. Another great thing about this film is that the directors really let the actors feel what they were doing. They let them be mad or they let them hate each other and that made the film that much more authentic. I absolutely loved every moment of this film and I'm probably going to watch it again with the commentary track to learn more about it.

I highly recommend this film to anyone looking for an introduction to the mumblecore movement or anyone who wants to expand their cinematic horizons.