Film

If the so-called mumblecore movement in independent film proves anything, it’s that there are a lot of different ways to film people talking. Named for their characters’ endearing inarticulateness, these plotless and mostly actionless movies typically consist of conversations over food and during downtime. Many of the directors themselves—all friends—appear in roles.

But although the earliest examples date only from 2002, it’s clear that the filmmakers have divergent styles. While Bujalski’s own movies (Funny Ha Ha and the wonderful Mutual Appreciation) are more tightly scripted than their awkward silences suggest, Chicagoan Swanberg is more overtly improvisational—with all the arbitrariness that that implies. He and six of his stars are credited as cowriters on Hannah Takes the Stairs, which meanders arrhythmically from one conversation to the next. The result can be monotonous, but at the same time feels all the more heartfelt when it stumbles on a moment of truth.

The story, such as it is, concerns the emotional indecisiveness of Hannah (the charming Gerwig), whose boyfriend (Duplass) recognizes her lack of interest and breaks it off. She then tentatively dates a coworker (Bujalski) who can’t tear himself from his work, and in between cute digressions—she and Osborne learn that they both dabbled in playing the trumpet—she ponders what she needs in a relationship. Somewhere between an actorly indulgence and a quietly insightful dissection of romantic anxieties, Hannah ultimately seems insubstantial—but that may be the point.