“Juno,” “The Wackness,” “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” “Garden State” even “The Go-Getter,” one of our friends calls these indie-friendly flicks, “The Shins of Indie Movies,” i.e., the pleasant, but completely toothless and innocuous indie-rock band on Sub Pop records that many of us enjoy, but all are completely aware aren’t exactly high art or life-changing.
These are the “offbeat” and “quirky” romance movies places like Stereogum, Pitchfork and the younger movie crowd tend to adore and we must admit we anticipate and even enjoy many of them too (of the above, “The Go-Getter” is our fave and the least indie offensive), but it’s undeniable that some of these “indie hipster” films can be obnoxious, sickeningly twee and cringe-inducing in their emo-ness. They’re films that Fox Searchlight loves to put out (as Spoutblog likes to say derisively) and they sometimes have the quality of a guilty pleasure (“The Wackness” is kind of that way for us, but we totally understand those that loathed it).
One film we’re tentatively looking forward to is the fanciful-looking “500 Days Of Summer” and this one totally fits the aforementioned, potentially offensive bill. It stars Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and it is the feature-length directorial debut of Marc Webb, a…wait for it… video director (more and more these days a “video director turned filmmaker” is a pejorative or a least a: proceed with caution fyi; see the godawful, “Henry Poole Is Here“).
Webb has directed a lot of ok videos for a lot of unremarkable bands (AFI, Good Charlotte, Miley Cyrus, My Chemical Romance, Matisyahu, Fergie, All American Rejects). Where are we going with all this?
We’ve always felt this way about a lot of these films, but had a difficult time sometime articulating what the problem with them was. Anywhoo, the hilarious post by crazy, but lovable coot Jeffrey Wells inspired some of it. His sort of contempt for the twee, fey indie boy kind of makes us laugh and it sort of points to the problem with these emo-wussy films. The film premieres at Sundance ’09 and Wells says he’s not having it.
“I’m least interested in seeing, no offense, is Marc Webb‘s 500 Days of Summer, which is about Joseph Gordon-Levitt flashing back to his relationship with Zooey Deschanel and trying to figure out why she broke up with him. I’m already suffering just thinking about this film. Any guy who doesn’t understand exactly what’s happening and not happening at any moment in a romantic relationship holds no interest for me. Only losers go “what went wrong?…waaahh” when things don’t work out. Winners know what’s going to happen before it happens, and they hold the door open for the woman as she leaves, and they give her cab fare.”
Ha, Wells is such a character and while he’s being typically melodramatic (and machismo) in his own way, he’s onto something and every one should be at least aware of the potential inherent problems with these films and sometimes we’re a little concerned when people are completely oblivious to their downsides. We’re not saying it’s going to suck and we’re not going to say we’re not vaguely anticipating it (it has musical connections which could be OK, and or at least put it on our radar), but we’re saying: if you don’t see the pitfalls in these films you’re kind of naive.
Yea, I never understood why, “he’s a music video director,” is such a put-down, but it is. Is it because they think the person can’t creatively tell a story more than 4 minutes long, a story with actual dialouge that is? (usually they can’t) Or maybe we haven’t learned our lesson yet, now that the likes of Spike Jonze, David Fincher et. al have arrived.
Fincher/Jonze/Gondry are the days when this was a plus. These days (or in recent years) it’s more a minus. See Henry Poole for one recent example
The quality of music-video-director-turned-motion-picture director is so obviously linked with the lack of an avenue equal to MTV in the '90s. Sure videos are all over YouTube, but no on wants to sink tens to hundreds of thousands into a video that's not going to get a guaranteed number of on-air plays to millions. (Captain Obvious says you're welcome.)
Also, "Emo Boy" sounds like such a bad parody that it will undoubtedly garner praise & adoration from emo kids, rendering it unnecessary to even be filmed.
Also, like the unwritten rule of fiction writing, “No one wants to hear about how your college years were bitchin”, there should be a rule for this kind of cinema – “No one wants to hear you discuss your favorite songs through your characters in some sort of hybrid Kevin Smith/Cameron Crowe style”.
Chad. you are spot on. When was the last time there was a creative video that made you stop in your tracks of fwd to a friend that wasn’t made by the usual suspects? When is there even talk of decent music videos anymore? Flashing Lights Kanye by Jonze? Its rare these days.
re: 500 Days of Summer…..I loved the script, and can’t wait to see how the movie turned out. just my opinion. everyone is so Judgey McJudgerson and we haven’t even see the trailer.
heh, i’m not judging. I just had 2 very recent conversations about these kinds of films and then Jeff Wells said his piece and it was enough to inspire me to have a dialogue/conversation about it (as most blog posts are).
Well, going back to The Shins, I guess we have Zach Braff to blame. Didn’t Garden State start this type of genre, a film I’m quite fond of and one I think is more akin to The Graduate than these subsequent movies.
I added Garden State to the top of the piece about 20 min ago. I omitted it initially. The film is a guilty pleasure for me, but i know people that HATE it and i’m never one to leap to its defense.
oh no! i wasn’t calling you Judgey!
don’t be mad.
My Painfully Twee Siren went off at:
“greeting card writer”
Other pseudo-indie movie professions: ice cream flavor tester, sprinkle color decider, tampon package designer, and finally, a tombstone washer (who falls in love with a tombstone maker who teaches him/her to live life to its fullest).
“Running with Scissors” and “Thumbsucker” could also be in this category.