Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageFunny Ha Ha (2003)
Director: Andrew Bujalski
Movie review
From Time Out London
It’s highly likely that cinematic carbon daters would be caught off guard if asked to place the year of production of Andrew Bujalski’s gently observant and delightfully cine-literate debut, ‘Funny Ha Ha’. Its loyal commitment to the documentary aesthetic of late ’70s American directors like John Cassavetes and the Maysles brothers belies the astonishing fact that it was actually made in 2002. Lank-haired and lonely, Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer) is trapped in postgraduate limbo and in serious need of direction. Helplessly side-lined by the remainder of her clique who are all in the later stages of pairing off and settling down, Marnie does her best to suppress designs on ex-boyfriend, Alex (Christian Rudder), himself a greasy bundle of scatterbrained ineffectuality whose outwardly cheery disposition only serves to perplex her further. The film’s pleasures – and there are many – are similar to those enjoyed during a night in a bar with friends when the conversation flutters naturally between the mundane, the fascinating, the hilarious and the sad.Filmed in long, hard takes on 16mm stock, the tinny sound and florid colours sit alongside some marvellously ragged dialogue (every sentence containing at least one ‘um’, ‘ah’ or ‘I don’t know’), imbuing the film with a subtle realism that allows us to feel totally comfortable in Marnie’s presence as she runs a gamut of awkwardness into young adulthood. Stripped of any pretensions and harbouring an old-fashioned (some may call it ‘uncool’) fondness for its characters, this is an undoubtedly modest yet wholly pleasurable tale about the difficulties that come with letting go of youth.
Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London Issue 1908: March 14-20 2007
User reviews of this film
-
- Technoguy said...
- Posted on Feb 12 2008 19:30 Not LAL funny,just awkward,nerdish,naffly wierd.The central character was merely nice,easily taken in,easily put-upon.she ummed and aahed her way ably through a film with no real dialogue or plot,maybe that was it's point: we were going nowhere,she was too middlingly bland but good to be around.A lot of the young characters could have been left out of an early Woody Allen film.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Andrew Bujalski
Producer: Ethan Vogt
Cast: Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Myles Paige, Jennifer Schaper, Marshall Lewy, Lissa Pattton Rudder, Andrew Bujalski full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 84 mins
UK Release: Mar 16 2007
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 50 greatest monster movies
As Joe Johnston’s long-awaited reinvention of Universal’s howl-at-the-moon classic ‘The Wolfman’ hits cinemas, Time Out lists our 50 favourite cinematic stalkers, growlers, slashers and biters.
Mark Kermode: A life in film
Dave Calhoun chats to Britain's most outspoken film critic and pundit ahead of the release of his memoirs
Has Ricky Gervais gone all serious?
The trailer to 'Cemetery Junction' suggests that its writer-director is suppressing his funny bone.
The genius of Roman Polanski
Ahead of his new film, 'The Ghost', we must forget the media circus and remember the artist pleads Wally Hammond
Oscars 2010: The nominees
Tom Huddleston offers his acute analysis on the list of nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards
Rotterdam 2010: Geoff Andrew's report
Geoff Andrew finds rich leftfield pickings at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival
Can Tom Ford cut it as a director?
After ten years as creative head of Gucci, Tom Ford has directed his first movie. Nina Caplan meets him
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
So here it is… Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this.
2009: The year in film
We look back at the best movies of 2009 and pick out some of our favourite lists, features and interviews.
What do you think?
Post your review now