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Mutual Appreciation (2005)

Director: Andrew Bujalski

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Movie review

From Time Out London

Alan (Justin Rice) is a newcomer to Brooklyn and a musician in search of a drummer. A lot of them get bored of his approach, and he tells one candidate: ‘I like to keep it simple.’ You suspect writer-director Andrew Bujalski knows the feeling: the lovably lo-fi, brilliantly naturalistic technique showcased first in the colour ‘Funny Ha Ha’ and now in the black-and-white ‘Mutual Appreciation’ has seen him justifiably hailed as the great white hope of the American indie film. But, by conventional standards, nothing much happens in his movies: middle-class graduates hang out, flirting and flopping on each other and the furniture, their shambling, self-consuming conversations echoing their aspirational but faltering lives. The films benefit from charismatic leads – Rice, who can do a disconcerting stare or a megawatt smile as occasion demands, wandered into ‘Funny Ha Ha’ covered in dirt, and that film’s star, Kate Dollenmayer, pops up here – and, 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.

Author: Ben Walters 2007-05-01 11:56:31

Time Out London Issue 1915: April 25-May 1 2007

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User reviews of this film

  • omar pavem said...
    Posted on Dec 23 2007 23:27 just watching this on sundance channel. meant to only watch a couple of minutes, but ended up enjoying it a *lot*. put it on dvr to record the rest since i had to bail, but it is a really interesting capture of people and behavior and situations connecting dots. i wonder about the film stock itself, which might sound strange, but at first i worried but then it made it more intimate and immediate and i started liking it as an attribute. the performances are direct and affecting. i hope the cast members get plenty of work in the future. great.
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Mutual Appreciation

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Cast & crew

Director: Andrew Bujalski

Producer: Ethan Vogt, Morgan Faust, Dia Sokol

Cast: Andrew Bujalski, Justin Rice, Rachel Clift, Seung-Min Lee, Kevin Micka, Bill Morrison, Pamela Corkey, Mary Varn, Tamara Luzeckyj, Ralph Tyler, Kate Dollenmayer, Keith Gessen, Salvatore Botti full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 109 mins


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