Mumblecore Mystery: Cold Weather

Picture this: a mumblecore movie with an actual plot. Sort of. It might not sound like a radical innovation, but it represents a big step forward in terms of watchability for the hipster subgenre of aimless but talky twenty to thirty-nothings slouching through life. Indeed, a rather clever little mystery confronts the slacker-protagonist of Aaron Katz’s Cold Weather (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

The defiantly under-achieving Doug has just dropped out of his forensic science program, moving in with his only-so-patient older sister Gail. He appears perfectly content working in the local ice factory, doing little else besides occasionally hanging with his co-worker Carlos, an aspiring DJ. However, when Doug’s ex-girlfriend Rachel unexpectedly shows up, that elusive thing called plot begins to percolate.

At first, everything seems cool. Despite Doug and Gail’s past relationship, the four generation-whatevers all get along pretty well. However, when Gail blows off Carlos’s gig, he becomes concerned, dragging his Sherlock Holmes-obsessed friend to her motel to investigate—and yes, from there the game’s afoot.

Frankly, Weather executes its amateur sleuth devices with surprising nimbleness. There are mystery men, lurid secrets, and even a code in need of breaking. As Doug, Cris Lankenau develops an easy, believable bantering chemistry with Trieste Kelly Dunn, who plays his big sis with verve and attitude. Lankenau also plays off the ever-so reserved Raúl Castillo quite nicely.

In addition to boasting a fair degree of humor and narrative drive, Weather also looks and sounds like a movie. Cinematographer Andrew Read gives it a coolly polished, professional look, while not slavishly emulating vintage film noir. Keegan DeWitt’s electro-percussive score helps propel the film along without clashing with Katz’s minimalist vibe. Instead of the typically stilted version of suburbia or a hopelessly unrealistic New York, Weather’s Portland setting further distinguishes it from the indie field, grounding it in an evocative dreariness. The film’s only drawback is a head-scratchingly abrupt ending that almost suggests Katz just decided to wrap production when he ran out of film.

If not a major work, Weather is certainly an amusing little film. One of the best films of the scruffy mumblecore pack (for what that’s worth), it opens tomorrow (2/4) in New York at the IFC Center.

Mumbling Memphis: Open Five

“Mumblecore” is a hipster term for slow and meandering. Sure, one can argue John Cassavetes was a forerunner of the Mumblecore school of largely improvised zero-budget twenty-nothing relationship films, but there seems to be a pernicious tendency towards navel-gazing in the sub-culture sub-genre. At least Kentucker Audley’s Open Five (trailer here) earns points for industriousness and generosity, as it begins a week of free screenings (or $3 for advance tickets) today at the reRun/Gastropub in the County of Kings.

Since women in New York are crazy about men with unkempt beards, baseball caps, and cut-off jeans, musician Jake has no problem convincing BKLN-based actress Lucy to visit him in Memphis. However, at this last minute she decides to bring along her friend Rose. Fortunately, she immediately falls in with Jake’s friend Kentucker, who just happens to be a filmmaker. For nearly the balance of the film, we watch as these two would-be couples warily circle around each other.

Shot on a poor man’s shoe-string budget, it is hard to bag on Open, because it is such a self-starting, self-reliant enterprise. Still, would it kill them to, you know, do something? After all, they scratched together the cast and crew, so why not make a movie?

Of course, great films can be made about ostensibly small, idiosyncratic subjects. Indeed, the film begins to take flight somewhat when the guys give their guests a jaundiced hipster’s eye tour of the Memphis music scene. This is a subject they can riff on convincingly. Unfortunately, in an effort to sound “real” most of their relationship dialogue comes across as rather dull instead.

Kentucker Audley’s name is awesome. As actors, he and Jake Rabinbach are more-or-less convincing sort of-kind of playing themselves. Shannon Esper and Genevieve Angelson should be out of their leagues, but they do their best to make the not quite relationships credible. Yet, it just never goes anywhere.

Open is about as independent as it gets, but it takes itself far too seriously. Still, give Audley and Rabinbach credit for bringing their film in, on-time and on-micro-budget. It is also short (67 minutes) and free starting today (11/26) at the reRun/Gastropub in Brooklyn, so those so inclined will not have to make much of an investment to satisfy their curiosity.