Mark and Jay Duplass' Baghead (2008)

I've yet to see a Mumblecore film I like. Mumblecore, if you didn't 't know, is the slightly derogatory label slapped on a recent batch of movies made by a core group of filmmakers (Joe Swanberg, Andrew Bujalski, Mark and Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz) whose small, low-budget movies are essentially about themselves and their less ambitious friends. These films uniformly feature a cross-section of predominantly white, well-educated twenty-something slackers who want big things -- to fall in love, to make art, to be happy -- but unfortunately, have an enormous predilection to sit around and talk and drink, and therefore, do little.

Enter Baghead: the second film by the Duplass Brothers (Puffy Chair was a film festival hit), is a low-budget genre-mixing story about a group of unemployed actors who retreat to a country cabin to write a horror script -- only to find themselves entrapped in their very own horror story. It's all very meta. The Duplass brothers also gently spoof their own scene, beginning the film at a small independent film festival, where a nervous filmmaker fields question from the savvy audience who wants a way into his world.

The film also features Greta Gerwig, the blond actress who almost single-handedly turned Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes The Stairs into a watchable film. (She also shares a directing credit with Swanberg on the upcoming Nights and Weekends.) Gerwig, unfortunately, is not at all appealing in Baghead. She plays Michelle, a frequently drunk, disingenuous, unintelligent actress who toys with the affections of Chad (Steve Zissis), her overweight so-called best friend, while making a play for his buddy Matt (Ross Partridge), the handsome one. It's too strong to call her hateful. She's not worthy.

Her three crew mates are no better. Matt, the cute guy, is not all that cute. The fourth wheel, Catherine (Elise Muller), is an aging actress who drinks red wine and specializes in sarcastic remarks, but Catherine Keener she is not. 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. I couldn't do it. Maybe if they had just one thing going for them.

When the Baghead of their imaginations (person in a paper bag with eyes cut out = scary), takes human form, their feverish lost journey through the woods is inevitable. Unlike the doomed characters of The Blair Witch Project, these kids don't curse, and the almost-witty banter continues. Don't get me wrong, Baghead gets some jokes in, and a couple of scary moments, too. But not nearly enough to make their hapless experience any less irritating.

Starring: Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Ross Partridge, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller
Directed by: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Produced by: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, John Bryant (IV)
Running Time: 1 hr. 28 min.
Release Date: July 25th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexual content and nudity.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics