Funny Ha Ha
Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski
Goodbye Cruel Releasing
2005
Rating:


There has probably never been a more excruciatingly realistic depiction of the post-graduate wasteland than "Funny Ha Ha." Andrew Bujalski's debut makes "Singles" and "Reality Bites" look positively false in comparison. With its unfailing naturalism and gritty 16mm aesthetic, the film could almost be a documentary on twentysomething existential angst and the quest for permanence that consumes those engulfed in a quarter-life crisis.

New Generation Y hero Marnie (an astonishing Kate Dollenmeyer) is, at age 23, continuously thwarted in her efforts to find something enduring. As the film begins, Marnie has lost her job, has an unrequited crush on college friend Alex (Christian Rudder) and can't even get a tattoo because the parlor she visits has a strict "no-drunks" policy. Like Jaye Tyler in the woefully short-lived FOX series "Wonderfalls," Marnie is the perfect incarnation of the overeducated, under-employable graduate student who doesn't know what to do with her life but knows what she doesn't want to with it. Moving through temp jobs and a host of men infatuated by her shy braininess (including Bujalski as Marnie's co-worker Mitchell, whose pursuit of Marnie begins with the line, "So, like, what's your deal?), Marnie slowly comes to maturation until the film suddenly ends with a glimmer of enlightenment in Marnie's eye.

Posted Thursday, January 12, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/funny.ha.ha