The mumblecore movement is made up of a group of young, media-savvy filmmakers who came into prominence after the SXSW Film Festival in 2005 by making lo-fi, naturalistic films that dealt with the problems of their own generation (Murphy, 2019). An important figure made up in this group is Joe Swanberg who is not only a director, but acts in his and other director’s movies as well. Mumblecore is unique in a sense due to all the directors of the genre not knowing each other until the Film Festival in 2005. It is quite difficult to even label mumblecore as a “movement” to some critics, because in order for it to be considered a “movement” it implies a cohesive group of individuals working toward predetermined, mutually agreed on goals (Christian, 2011). This isn’t the case with mumblecore, even though across the board these white young male directors possess a lot of similarities.
Mumblecore, and exclusively mumblecore horror films, represent current society in the 21st century. These realist movies embody the struggle to fill the void between the virtual, digital and deconstructed world of new media and a visceral desire for love and humanity, flawed concepts made ever important in a networked world (Christian, 2011). Professional acting no longer exists, and Joe Swanberg relishes off spontaneous acting done by inexperienced actors new to the film industry. In his interview with Paste Magazine, Swanberg stated that he loves
“I’m really comfortable in the low-budget space, and I’m working that way by choice at this point. I’m a big fan of limitations; I find them to be liberating. It’s always nice to have a small amount of money, a few actors and go from there” (Joe Swanberg, Paste Magazine).
Murphy, in his article on Joe Swanberg, says this is due to living in a generation where everything is constantly recorded. The goal now with mumblecore, is having a sense of naturalism. At the 2016 SXSW Film Festival, Swanberg gave a keynote address that provides one of the clearest explanations of his own conception of improvisation:
“What I’m really encouraging people to do, via the improv, is just not act. If I give you the lines ahead of time, you’re going to figure out a performance, and I don’t want you to do that. I want you to be forced to just exist in the moment that we’re filming, and I’m casting you because I want you to be you. I like you, I like how you talk, I like the kinds of jokes you make, do those in my movie; don’t go create a character that’s something else” (Murphy, pg. 188, 2019).
The low-budget qualifications that Joe Swanberg finds comfortable is in fact what created the mumblecore movement, and the sense of naturalization. Swanberg asks the question of why would he write dialogue for a 22 year-old college girl who had just broken up with her boyfriend, when I can cast the girl going through it herself? “I am more inspired by the aesthetics of YouTube and reality TV than I am by the history of cinema” (Murphy, pg. 188, 2019). These are the cornerstones of what makes mumblecore a growing attraction.
Even with the rising popularity of mumblecore, there still are some important critiques to consider. Nessa Johnston in her article discusses the lack of sound quality in mumblecore films, and puts together some critiques of what these movies represent according to critics. According to Justin Horton who summarizes the style: “Frequently improvised, cast with nonprofessional actors, and characterized by narrative looseness, mumblecore films attempt to make a virtue of their rough-hewn visual style” (Johnston, pg. 68, 2014). The term mumblecore was coined due to the mumbling, but mumblecore movies are not supposed to be something more than what they really are which is low-budget unprofessional productions that so happened to gain popularity.
Critics that brought the term “mumblecore” into the public consciousness tend to posit the “mumble” as a mumble of unintelligible, but in two respects: a casual and improvised tone of inarticulate dialogue, and low-budget production values in which sound is “low-fi,” “low volume,” and “neglected” (Johnston, pg. 77, 2014). Despite mumblecore critiques, they can’t take away from the fact that mumblecore has taken prominence in the last ten to fifteen years and remains popular among its viewers as they tend to take on a life of their own.
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