Beeswax

Andrew Bujalski, much to his consternation I'm sure, is regarded as the "godfather of mumblecore." Mumblecore being a kind of low-budget film, usually made by and concerning middle-class white kids just after college, with dialogue that sounds improvised.

His third film, Beeswax, is in the mumblecore mode, but somewhat more ambitious. For one thing, at the heart of the film lies a business dispute, which could make this the mumblecore version of The Social Network. But most of the tropes are there--the dialogue that is halting and imprecise, the amateur actors, the sets that look like they were hastily slapped together, the slacker vibe.

Beeswax concerns twin sisters, who are played by twin sisters--Tilly and Maggie Hatcher. Tilly, who is wheelchair bound,plays, Jeanie, a wheelchair-bound character, buti that is not central to the plot, it just is, which makes this a refreshing thing. She's the co-owner of a vintage clothing shop in Austin, Texas. Her partner, who has little to do with the business, wants out, which makes Jeanine anxious. She turns to a sort-of boyfriend, Merrill (Alex Karpovsky), a law student, to help out.

Maggie Hatcher is Lauren, who kind of drifts through life. She is interested in teaching, and gets an offer to go to Nairobi. Her character isn't nearly as defined or interesting as Tilly's.

Other people drift in and out of the movie, sometimes identified, sometimes not. Several scenes begin in mid-conversation, and there's certainly a verisimilitude about the whole project. I ended up liking the film a great deal, although I'm hard pressed to explain why. Tilly's business, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that important, becomes everything as the movie progresses. Less gripping is Maggie's decision to go to Africa, which isn't even resolved when the movie comes to a halt.

Slice of life movies are jarring to watch, because we're used to films having characters who speak in complete sentences and do interesting things. Bujalski's films turn the camera around on ourselves (that is, if we are white twenty- or thirtysomethings in hip college towns) and ask us to decide what's really important in our lives. Most of the time I'm up for that.