Hannah Takes the Back-Handed Praise
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Hannah Takes the Stairs comes out on DVD today (see bloggy debate over the package’s generic rom-com design at FILMMAKER and Cinematical), which means that my Google Alert for “mumblecore” has been on fire for a number of days. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small release, and most publications reviewing it as a part of a Tuesday new release round-up don’t have much space to give. But IFC’s website (sister to the company that released the film theatrically) gives critic Michael Atkinson 500 words––and though he ultimately gets around to a positive review of this movie, he devotes the first 230 words or so to explaining why mumblecore is shit.
“Is it even a movement?” Atkinson grumbles. “Is anyone outside of the ticket buyers at a handful of smallish American film festivals passionate about these movies, and if not, why are they getting so much press?” Surely, Atkinson knows that the mumble-hate contingent has tread and re-tread this terrirory many times over––after all, Amy Taubin (no fan of Joe Swanberg, but a supporter of other filmmakers who have been lumped into the genre, including Andrew Bujalski and Aaron Katz), declared the “movement” dead a full five months ago.
Why is it still necessary to qualify praise of a specific mumblecore-associated film by defaming the M-word itself, to the point where a critic actually devotes more space of a DVD review to explaining why those other films are bad than he devotes to explaining why this film is good? When will individual films and filmmakers be able to shrug off this baggage––and by writing about it at all, am I part of the problem?
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog
Posted
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 1:33 PM
First let me address the Hannah DVD...
I love it.
Second, and please excuse my conspiracy theory, BUT I think that the press is to blame for a lot of "movement"...unless of course, all of these filmmakers went to film camp together, raided the editing room, all hyped up on camp fire storied and marshmallows and decided to become a filmmaking army...AND I dont think that happened.
I think this "movement" (and I dont think its a movement) is just the press becoming aware of the destruction of it's precious hollywood machine, its great and loyal leader.
American filmmakers are becoming more and more aware of the power they have in their own hands and they are running wild with that giant potential, and none of their movies look or sound alike...I mean, Yes, young people talk funny...its always been that way. They have funny lives. Yes. No money, shitty jobs and confusing relationships. These things stand true and have always been that way. I don't think a movement is happening...i think a medium is changing!
Film is and will always be for the inventors!
Here is the conspiracy theory I promised...The Hollywood Machine (huge studios and their million dollar friends...corporate america in spite of art) wants the press to do what it does best...play to the lowest of minds....encourage our own ignorance, make us believe that something can be a "movement", that these independent filmmakers aren't doing things their own way...that they can be labeled and manufactured (...the studio even tried...shall I say JUNO). The Hollywood machine wants to know its enemies...so it has to make them first, bundle them all together, try to recreate them, then destroy them. The press is purely the marionette.
AND spout....dont get me wrong, you are great. I feel as though you ask more questions then answer them and I think thats the greatest thing that journalism can do.
I am speaking of the mass media as a whole...and more specifically, the mainstream entertainment media.
And back to Hannah Takes The Stairs...
Love or Hate the way the dvd packaging looks, its a really special movie that opened my eyes to the potential of young filmmaking and I will always have high regard for it. Never judge a book by its cover...rent it and watch. Buy it and own it. It's important to see things we dont understand and at least think about them.