What does "Mumblecore" mean to you?

The word "mumblecore" gets tossed around quite a bit, but it's been tough nailing down what it actually means. Rumor has it that the directors aren't even very fond of it. Perhaps, it's not the term so much as being lumped together under a specific label. 

How would you define mumblecore?

Re:What does "Mumblecore" mean to you?

so there are several twenty-somethings making unscripted, very-low-budget films about twenty-somethings... but wait. there are probably thousands of twenty-somethings making such films... but these several that i mention, because of the quality of their films, or because they have connections in the industry and/or with the media, or simply due to serendipity, or perhaps for all these reasons, these several have achieved noteriety and the attendant distribution deals, plus a genre sobriquet, that make their movies available and of interest to us the general public. that's my take on it.

Later: Oops. As I mention in the other mumblecore thread, now that I've learned that David Gordon Green is considered by some to have started this genre, my paragraph above doesn't make a lot of sense. oh well. 

Re:What does "Mumblecore" mean to you?

My favorite thing is when I google "Mumblecore" and they ask me "Did you mean Dumbledore?" I don't know why, but it makes me laugh every time.

Anyway, I watched LOL this week and I have seen a few of the other films on the mumblemap (that's what I'm calling it from now on). At this point, I feel like a voyer listening in on strangers' tough conversations. These characters aren't really exceptional. They all feel painfully normal; leading lives that could be anyone, anywhere. No one seems incredibly thrilled by their situations, but aren't striving to create change in their context. They all seem like they are surviving or trying to sustain the worlds they have built to provide a sense of satisfaction with life, love and work. I just graduated from college and their story doesn't seem unfamiliar from the lives of my friends and I.  A lot of these films seem essentially to be recording life as it's happening, its acting, but its not. Its life as art, which I find incredibly beautiful.

Re:Re:What does "Mumblecore" mean to you?

Maybe it was because I listened to the commentary tracks, but I was very aware of Swanberg as Swanberg the moviemaker in LOL. And  Bewersdorf as a musician and Tipper Newton as a member of an artistic family. So that the vibe I picked up was not just of life as I lived it as a twentysomething (drifting, focused on relationships), but of an additional element of potential success or fullfillment or something. Too late for me to change my history, but the movie made me think about what I could have done differently.

Re:Re:What does "Mumblecore" mean to you?

I think most film is voyeuristic... if only because the experience is, generally, supposed to be entertaining or cathartic, both of which are luxuries of dominance/power.  Even when the film is not a documentary or mumblecore, we watch the story/ies of other people play out on screen for our enjoyment.

 I think the realness of mumblecore is a part of how its message transcends the barriers you mentioned.  I'm certainly not a white, twentysomething college graduate, but there were definite things about characters in LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs that I was able to point to and say, "Wow that's me" or "I can totally relate."