mumblecore
16 titles · 2002–2013 · United States
Sound editor Eric Masunaga coined the word at South by Southwest in 2005, needling a run of American films already three years deep into shooting handheld on consumer DV cameras for whatever budget a credit card could carry, by friends who let the dialogue run loose because nobody could afford a second take. It stuck. The cheapness keeps showing up as subject matter: Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha follows a dancer in New York losing friends, money and work at the rate the films themselves were made for. Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy needs nothing beyond two actors and a car, Mark and his old friend Kurt on a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness while Mark, weeks from fatherhood, talks around what is actually changing. Sean Baker kept the tradition of the cheapest camera in the room current: he shot Tangerine on three iPhones, following two working girls chasing down a rumour across one Los Angeles Christmas Eve. Very little happens on purpose, and the films are funny about it.
