Sundance. Baghead.

"Is it too early for the 'mumblecore' movement to spoof itself?" asks Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Evidently not, and it's a good thing too. A group of underemployed, ultra-indie filmmakers and actors head to the woods to make their own brilliant new film, in the latest work of deadpan comedy from brothers Mark and Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair)."

Updated through 1/30.

"The Duplass Brothers... are growing as filmmakers," writes Steve Ramos at indieWIRE. "They're trying new things in Baghead and building upon their strengths as craftsmen of approachable characters, zippy dialogue and warm romance. As a result, Baghead, premiering in the Spectrum program at the Sundance Film Festival, is the Duplass Brothers' best film yet."

Back in November 06, Bryan Poyser filed a set report for the Austin Chronicle.

Online listening tip. James Rocchi talks with the brothers for Cinematical.

Online listening tips. Kevin Buist interviews Greta Gerwig for the SpoutBlog; also, Jay Duplass.

Online viewing tip. At the SpoutBlog, Joe Swanberg watches the cast and crew promote Baghead in Park City.

Updates: Brian Brooks reports at indieWIRE that Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Baghead: "The deal, brokered by Submarine, is understood to be a mid to high six-figure pact."

"Brother filmmaking teams abound: the Maysles, Coens, Hugheses, Wachowskis. With the Duplass and Zellner brothers, who specialize in micro-budget indie comedies that mine humor from the banal, dreary and heartbreaking, Austin lays claim to two of the funniest, most frugal and most prolific of these blood-bound couples." And the Austin American-Statesman's Chris Garcia talks with all four of them. Via Matt Dentler.

Updates, 1/26: "Baghead is a complete blast, a meta-exploration of the creative process, genre and relationships that gets just about everything right," writes Tom Hall. "Most excitingly, the film's tonal shifts between comedy, romance, horror and drama all feel completely natural and earned, which is no small feat."

"Reflecting on their first two rousing screenings in Park City, Jay Duplass noted that the film played more distinctly as a comedy during its first showing at the Prospector theater, while two days later at the more intimate Holiday Village theater, some tense aspects of the story came across more distinctly," reports indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez.

Online viewing tip. Matt Dentler points to Andrew Rossi's New York Post video report on the Duplass brothers.

Update, 1/30: "After being suffocated by so many well-made but unoriginal independent films at Sundance, Baghead is like a blast of fresh air," writes Eric D Snider at Cinematical. "It has warmth and innovation, and the mischievous good sense to subtly make fun of the type of film that it is."

Posted by dwhudson at January 25, 2008 6:42 AM