Interview. Jay and Mark Duplass.

"A refreshingly high-concept low-budget outing, the Duplass Brothers' Baghead is an immensely likeable and surprisingly well-executed genre hybrid," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "The difficulty one finds in trying to categorize it is part of its charm, and this is not just whether one sees it as horror, comedy, or relationship roundelay but also how one defines and compartmentalizes its aesthetic: Baghead's makers and at least one of its stars may have crawled out from under the 'mumble'-corps, but its adherence to a somewhat conventional narrative framework successfully contorts and expands the boundaries of what that short-lived almost-collective of filmmakers were after. And furthermore, and of greater significance, it smartly proves that it only takes the slightest, smartest tweaks to temporarily revitalize an entire genre."

Sean Axmaker talks with Jay and Mark Duplass about how they've pulled this off.

Updated through 7/26.

"Think Hannah Gets Pushed Down the Stairs," suggests Henry Stewart in the L Magazine. "But Baghead succeeds where other genre fusion films fail because its horror emerges organically from its drama; expertly entwined, they pick up each other's slack."

"[I]t's very broad, but the satire - and its attendant babble - actually heightens the scares," writes David Edelstein in New York in New York. "The monstrous maniac with the bagged head is like an extension of the characters' own self-indulgence."

Kathy Fennessy talks with the brothers as well - at the Siffblog.

Earlier: Rob Nelson in Cinema Scope, "Baghead in Austin" and reviews from Sundance.

Updates: More interviews with the Duplasses! As noted above, James Ponsoldt talks with them for Filmmaker and at IFC, Aaron Hillis's first question is, "How do we destroy the word 'mumblecore'?"

Updates, 7/23: "The movie's better in its first half, when it pokes gentle fun at the film-festival circuit," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice. But I would love to see the overwrought bit o' nonsense shown during the film's opening minute, when the foursome attend a film-fest screening of We Are Naked. Best joke in the picture."

Michael Guillén talks with the Duplass brothers.

Updates, 7/25: "I want to persuade you to see Baghead, but I don't want to overhype it, because in many ways it's a delicate construction best served as a surprise." Andrew O'Hehir introduces his interview with the Duplass brothers at Salon.

"The shallow, crabby characters... are uncomfortably recognizable," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Beyond chewing over their own insecurities, these smart, self-absorbed people have little to say.... The semi-improvised performances, which seem so natural that it is tempting to confuse the actors with their characters, bring Baghead into the realm of group therapy observed through one-way glass."

"The real fun is how the Duplasses manage the horror movie business as if it's a poker hand, creating tension that magnifies the quirks and emotional prickliness of the characters, whose mutual neediness fluctuates with the love/hate dynamic of a reality TV competition (or college dorm room)," writes Steve Dollar in the New York Sun. "When all hell finally breaks loose, it's that much scarier and that much funnier, mostly because you're not sure whether to scream or laugh."

"The Duplasses are self-deprecating about their craft, but they're obviously skilled enough to incorporate a nerve-jangling variety of tones while keeping them all in balance," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

"Baghead, despite its early sweetness, is actually a horror film, and, unfortunately, a failed one," argues Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out New York.

Online listening tip. Mark Duplass, Greta Gerwig and Ross Partridge are on the Leonard Lopate Show.

The Duplasses have "made a movie about trickery that neatly tricks its viewers into laughing, then screaming, then laughing again," writes Dana Stevens in Slate.

"For the Duplass's film about these talentless slackers to work - both as a comedy and then as a horror film - it's essential that we care about the characters," writes Marcy Dermansky. "I couldn't do it. Maybe if they had just one thing going for them."

Updates, 7/26: "Baghead is the first mumblecore movie to fail from thematic overambition rather than excessive modesty; for that alone it deserves some kind of prize," writes Vadim Rizov at the House Next Door. "[L]ike the finale of Adaptation. and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, its ending is so theoretical and arid that even as it makes all the right moves onscreen, it feels like a needless endgame. But the Duplass brothers are really onto something: they seem to be trying to build themselves back up to a mainstream narrative that'll fulfill all conventional expectations without making a single emotional false step."

Mark Olsen profiles Gerwig, "something of the accidental 'It' girl," for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at July 22, 2008 11:59 AM