Dawn of the Duplass

I’ve been simultaneously trying to catch up on some of the smaller independent films that came out earlier in 2012 and familiarizing myself with the recent American independent film movement known as mumblecore, which I have ignored for too long. So I’ve recently worked my way through “Humpday,” “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” “Your Sister’s Sister,” and “Safety Not Guaranteed.” The common element of all of these films is writer-director-actor Mark Duplass.

Along with his brother Jay, Mark Duplass is considered one of the founders of the mumblecore movement, starting with their first directing effort, 2005’s “The Puffy Chair.” They’ve gone on to direct several other mumblecore features like “Baghead,” “Cyrus,” “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” and their latest, “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon,” which hasn’t hit DVD yet. So far I’ve seen “Cyrus” and “Jeff, Who Lives at Home.” It’s taken me a while to appreciate the low-budget, DIY nature of mumblecore filmmaking, but I like how the stories are so simple and intimate, and rely heavily on character interactions and naturalistic dialogue. It makes for a nice break from the visually slick aesthetics of most mainstream films these days. There are some of titles that I still can’t wrap my head around, like Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture,” but I’m starting to find some favorites too.

Now I’m still not completely sold on the Duplass brothers as directors. I had a hard time with “Cyrus,” but I liked “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” a great deal better. Solid performances and some good writing. My biggest concern is that the subject matter of both films is extremely limited. Both center on a particular brand of awkward, dysfunctional family dynamic, and the leads are immature adult males with some social neuroses. While I like the realistic approach to the material, which often comes across as a rebuke of Hollywood’s idiot manchild comedies, it’s material that’s been done to death. The delayed maturity of the American male has been perhaps the most prominent theme in American films since the late 90s. “Baghead,” their 2008 quasi-horror film, is supposed to be a departure from this, and I really need to go track it down before I make any further judgments.

So far, I think I prefer Mark Duplass as an actor, particularly his appearances in other independent films that break the mold a bit more. He’s been everywhere in 2012, playing major roles in Lynn Shelton’s dramedy “Your Sister’s Sister,” and Colin Trevorrow’s science-fiction tinged “Safety Not Guaranteed.” He’s also shown up in the more mainstream “People Like Us,” “Darling Companion,” and is listed in the cast of Katherine Bigelow’s upcoming “Zero Dark Thirty.” Somehow he also found the time to co-direct “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon,” which premiered at South by Southwest in March, and to keep appearing as one of the leads in FX sitcom “The League,” currently in the middle of its fourth season. Oddly, he’s never acted in one of the films he’s directed, something I’d love to see.

As a performer, Duplass has a great deal of charisma and this wonderful everyman quality to him. He can play more intellectual and put-together, as he was in “Humpday,” or someone going to pieces, like his would-be time traveler in “Safety Not Guaranteed.” Lynn Shelton’s films are largely based on improvisation, and you can get a good sense of how smart and insightful Duplass is as a performer from his work in “Your Sister’s Sister,” where he plays a damaged man in love with his dead brother’s widow. Even though a lot of his parts are variations on the same sort of character who might be a lead in one of his own movies, they’re also diverse enough to keep being impressive.

The one that really sold me on Duplass was his performance in Shelton’s “Humpday.” It has a ridiculous premise on paper, where Duplass’s character, Ben, reconnects with a close friend, Andrew, played by Josh Leonard. The two come up with the wild idea to make an art film where they sleep with each other on camera. Ben can’t ever quite articulate why he wants to do this, but convinces his wife, himself, and the audience that it’s deeply important to him. The final, extended sequence where Ben and Andrew find out exactly where the limits of their bromance are, is a nail-biter. And to top it off, all the dialogue in the film was improvised.

Thanks to recent technological innovations, we are living in a new age of multi-hyphenates, where filmmakers like Mark Duplass, Lena Dunham, and Louis C.K. are doing it all – acting, directing, writing, producing, and more. Duplass may not be as high profile as the others at the moment, there’s no question that he’s a creative force to be reckoned with. As he slowly moves into the mainstream, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he becomes one of our major American filmmakers, not just to the indie film fans, but everybody.
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