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Funny Ha Ha
R1 - America - Genius Products / Wellspring Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (17th July 2007). |
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The Film
 Before I write this review, I suppose I should just say that there are some movies I don't get. Most pertinent here is probably early Jim Jarmusch. I thought 'Stranger than Paradise' was an okay movie, but not the important and astounding movie most people think it is. This movie seems to have a nice following, but I just don't get it. Even after the commentary, I'm still left with a sense of confusion. Job-hopping, boyfriend-hopping Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer) realizes there's something more to life and then, what, stops trying? She doesn't know what she wants, which is fine by her because the world doesn't tell her what she wants. This is the movie in a nutshell, directed, edited and written by first-timer Andrew Bujalski. It's about life in a post-collegiate world, where meandering seems like the best option and indecision and indifference (how many times does Marnie say 'I don’t know…') are the rules of life. The movie follows Marnie as she weaves her way through various jobs, friends and would-be boyfriends. These are the kinds of movies that make other people look the other way. By its mere premise, it promises to say something about twentysomethings. Why, then, doesn't it seem to have anything to say? Perhaps, then, the director doesn't have all the answers. Why show the life these peolpe have, then? 'Metropolitan', for example, not specifically about post-college life, centers around people the same age, and says something interesting, with the same basic structure. People meet, talk and, unlike in 'Funny Ha Ha', learn something. In 'Metropolitan', also, Whit Stillman doesn't propose having all the answers, yet says something about the life he's showing. This movie seems pretty intimate, and so the director knows what's going on. This is the movie's only real strength. I can't fault the movie completely because it does get some things right. The situations are pretty common and everybody has had to think about the transitions between graduation and their first real job. Everybody has liked something that didn't feel the same and vice-versa. (There are also strings of existentialism to make things symbolic, if you wish to read into that.) The movie does cut close to real life and maybe that's one of its faults. It doesn't enlighten me about anything because I know everything here. I've seen these things happen and, quite frankly, my life is a lot more interesting than this movie, so why spend time with these people? The situations are very common, but the way the director handles them isn't the most realistic, though he tries to make them feel this way. Nobody here seems to be thinking. All the characters just seem to be coasting through life, not initiating anything. The only time Marnie tries to do something from her 'Things to do' list, she ends up having a very awkward day with her friend. What is that supposed to mean? The actors also seem to overemphasize the fact that their acting naturally, with small little comments, additional lingering moments and small gestures. The whole thing comes off as, to be evil, quite amateurish, and to be nice, very rehearsed. They unknowingly draw attention to the fact that they're trying to be natural. I've had a lot of conversations with people I don't know that don't seem as awkward or forced. This is like early Woody Allen without the satire or hilarity, or like Whit Stillman without any of the wit or intelligence. It's the director's first movie, and, I guess, may be excused a little bit because of it. On a deeper level, Marnie is ultimately uninteresting because of one character trait, and so nothing happens in this movie. The universe is against you, whatever you do, so just stop doing everything? This is makes the movie either pointless or utterly depressing. I personally don’t want to know (or actually care) which one it is.
Video
1.33:1 full frame. Shown here in its original aspect ratio, the picture shows its low-budget roots. The print shows some damage, though not much. The biggest problems come in the lack of detail and softness of the picture. The colours are okay, though not as accurate as they should be and the lighting is subject to the location. This makes the cinematography, and hence the transfer, very variable in its saturation and brightness. If the director's intention was to make something intimate and a bit rough, he succeeded, as the movie definitely looks low budget. On the other hand, there are compression artifacts, no edge enhancement and no noise.
Audio
The only audio track is a functional English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track. It's marred by the source recordings, as low-budget movies often are. Big, noisy environments give way to hollow, somewhat tinny voices, but the smaller enclosed spaces sound fine. The dialogue is clear enough to hear all the words. There's no hissing or popping, and although it's a mono track, it's still a recent movie, so the track is fine. There are no subtitles.
Extras
The first and biggest extra is an audio commentary by a strangely unnamed Russian scholar. (This extra, by the way, is titled 'An Outside Perspective from a Russian Scholar' in the menu screen). This is a pretty intellectual discussion of the film (which, incidentally, makes the movie look pretty sloppy). The scholar's life seems to be a lot more interesting than Marnie's, as well. Though the scholar does have some interesting points about the main character and some of the themes of the movie (existentialist themes, to be specific), I don't quite buy some of her tangents and references on, for example, Andrei Tarkovsky, Leo Tolstoy and various folk tales. I do have to admit that her knowledge of Russian literature and culture far surpasses mine. She also has some pretty lengthy gaps at times (up to 7 or 8 minutes), though when she does talk, she is filled with information. After that, the extras are all pretty minor. You have a Portrait Gallery by Lissa Patton Rudder, which is a gallery of pictures (not photographs) of the actors in their character form. It's a nice gallery, but nothing very special. Also pretty interesting, especially if you liked the movie, is A Radio Play (6:59). It's in the same vein as the movie. It's a phone conversation between two people, one of whom had a dream about the other. It's realistic but, like the movie, it seems to try to point out the fact that’s it's trying to be realistic. It's nice to hear, though. Then you have a bunch of trailers, in two sections. A Trailer Gallery has trailers of 'Palindromes' (1:47), 'In the Realms of the Unreal' (2:21), 'Nina's Tragedies' (1:53), 'Tarnation' (2:22) and 'Strings' (2:55) have trailers. Interestingly, the most well-known movie ('Palindromes') seems to be the least interesting. The movies all seem fascinating, though you have to be interested in these types of movies to actually be swayed by the trailers. Coming Attractions has 'Kings & Queen' (2:26), 'Dear Wendy' (2:06) and 'The Beat that My Heart Skipped' (2:01) have trailers here. Again, they look great. Finally, though most people will watch this first, is the movie's Trailer (2:31). It's a good trailer, in that it tells you pretty much what you're going to see. It may make the movie seem a bit more quirky than it really is, but otherwise, it's an accurate representation of the movie.
Overall
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