Andrew Bujalski × 2
Screening Dates
  • April 12, 2019 6:30
  • April 13, 2019 8:40
  • April 14, 2019 6:30
New Restoration

“One of the most influential films of the ​‘00s.”

A.O. Scott, New York Times

The debut feature of 25-year-old Harvard alum Andrew Bujalski (Computer Chess, Support the Girls) spawned a short-lived and hotly contested new wave in American indie cinema in the mid-to-late-aughts. Coined Mumblecore after its naturalistic, stumbling style of dialogue, the micro-movement quickly gained traction for its no-budget ingenuity and naked observations on quarter-life ennui for the postcollegiate set. Funny Ha Ha, the movement’s earliest and arguably best entry, is a Rohmerian talky that charts the relationship woes of rudderless Boston college-grad Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer). She’s crushing on her newly single pal; her temp-job workmate (a charmingly neurotic Bujalski) is crushing on her. Bujalski, whose advisor at Harvard was Chantal Akerman, plumbs caverns of cringeworthy realism over the film’s modest runtime. Completed in 2002, it wouldn’t receive a proper release until after Mumblecore’s christening at SXSW in 2005.