Saturday, January 14, 2006
"Funny Ha Ha"
posted by RICK : 1:52 PM
My kind roommate let me borrow his Netflix'd copy of Funny Ha Ha last night. I knew little of the film outside of its name, and really had little to no motivation for watching it. I didn't know what it was about-- maybe something about a dinner party, I don't know-- and felt it was, generally speaking, one of those "critically acclaimed" films that I feel I should try to watch sometime, but never do-- like "Schindler's List."
But then I read this article on Slate (in Slate?) about the director's next film, Mutual Appreciation, and immediately decided that "Funny Ha Ha" needed to be watched.
I made the right decision.
"Funny Ha Ha" is a film that is greater than the sum of its parts. Even the subject matter, early 20-somethings coming to grips with post-graduate adulthood, couldn't be more cliche for a film shot on 16mm and starring what is essentially the cast of "Slacker." And yet it works. Really works. And I can't tell if its the amazing writing, or amazing acting, or amazing improv (probably all three), but I can't remember a time when I watched a fiction film and was as captivated by the characters as I was in this one. Maybe I can remember-- "Swingers?"
From the spring of 1998 to the spring of 1999 I watched "Swingers" at some points as many as three times a week. It started because I found the movie undeniably hilarious (and still do), but eventually I knew every beat of the jokes and ended up sticking around because it's an easy movie to imagine myself as the characters. Jon Favreau, to his great credit, created individuals who were both what I wanted to become and what I currently was. I imagine the same can be said for other people who were fans of the movie. After all, at the age of 17, nothing strikes a chord more to a heterosexual male than the story of a guy getting over a girl, because most often "a girl is a girl" but in "Swingers" getting over the girl can really be about getting over anything-- school, youth, a girl. There's also the introvert wanting to be the extrovert facet of the film, which is incredibly appealing to someone that doesn't like to talk to strangers. "Swingers" in a weird way, was my gateway to adulthood. Life-drama never really seemed as big a deal after, and maybe that's a sad sentiment and that I've clearly been spending the past 8 years inhabiting some sort of tragic fantasyland, but it has gotten me this far.
Watching "Funny Ha Ha" last night brought all those feelings back, but in a different way. I wasn't projecting myself onto those characters because my lifestyle and theirs, while not being mutually exclusive, aren't really all that similar either. Perhaps what I found most interesting was that, unlike "Swingers," I felt that maybe the characters in "Funny Ha Ha" were how I was suppose to end up. It's the feeling of experiencing the same thing at two completely different points in your life. The plot of "Funny Ha Ha" couldn't be much thinner (which I love), but the basic premise deals with the notion that the post-collegiate-urban-hipster typically finds themselves in one of two camps, 1) employed by a company you are indifferent to and thus spend your non-working hours going from party to party drinking away your boredom or 2) unemployed and thus spend your non-working hours going from party to party drinking away your boredom, and sometimes trying to look for temporary work. Both of these types are also poor communicators, despite most evidence pointing to many communications degrees scattered amongst them. I find myself closer to group #1 than to #2, but I've never been much of a hard-core drinker, and frankly find myself too motivated to be that disillusioned. But I'm watching this movie and looking at these characters in their retro-tees and bedhead and PBR and thinking, "I know that this movie is suppose to make me thankful that I'm not living in a state of post-ironic purgatory, but goddamn if that lifestyle isn't appealing!" Sure, I have a regular job and earn a decent wage, and while going from house-party to house-party might be a sorry existence, it also seems completely acceptable and dare I say necessary.
After all, the characters in "Funny Ha Ha" aren't going to die alone in the gutter. They're going to die alone (or surrounded by family... but definitely dead) in their suburban split-levels or downtown condos because people with a means usually pull it together at some point. Maybe that's why I found the film so pleasant-- there's never any real danger or real drama. The characters in this environment, as in reality, are essentially safe. Sure, there are rocky times, but this isn't Baghdad. Watching this lifestyle portrayed so perfectly on film comes off, at least to this viewer, as relatively optimistic.
My kind roommate let me borrow his Netflix'd copy of Funny Ha Ha last night. I knew little of the film outside of its name, and really had little to no motivation for watching it. I didn't know what it was about-- maybe something about a dinner party, I don't know-- and felt it was, generally speaking, one of those "critically acclaimed" films that I feel I should try to watch sometime, but never do-- like "Schindler's List."But then I read this article on Slate (in Slate?) about the director's next film, Mutual Appreciation, and immediately decided that "Funny Ha Ha" needed to be watched.
I made the right decision.
"Funny Ha Ha" is a film that is greater than the sum of its parts. Even the subject matter, early 20-somethings coming to grips with post-graduate adulthood, couldn't be more cliche for a film shot on 16mm and starring what is essentially the cast of "Slacker." And yet it works. Really works. And I can't tell if its the amazing writing, or amazing acting, or amazing improv (probably all three), but I can't remember a time when I watched a fiction film and was as captivated by the characters as I was in this one. Maybe I can remember-- "Swingers?"
From the spring of 1998 to the spring of 1999 I watched "Swingers" at some points as many as three times a week. It started because I found the movie undeniably hilarious (and still do), but eventually I knew every beat of the jokes and ended up sticking around because it's an easy movie to imagine myself as the characters. Jon Favreau, to his great credit, created individuals who were both what I wanted to become and what I currently was. I imagine the same can be said for other people who were fans of the movie. After all, at the age of 17, nothing strikes a chord more to a heterosexual male than the story of a guy getting over a girl, because most often "a girl is a girl" but in "Swingers" getting over the girl can really be about getting over anything-- school, youth, a girl. There's also the introvert wanting to be the extrovert facet of the film, which is incredibly appealing to someone that doesn't like to talk to strangers. "Swingers" in a weird way, was my gateway to adulthood. Life-drama never really seemed as big a deal after, and maybe that's a sad sentiment and that I've clearly been spending the past 8 years inhabiting some sort of tragic fantasyland, but it has gotten me this far.
Watching "Funny Ha Ha" last night brought all those feelings back, but in a different way. I wasn't projecting myself onto those characters because my lifestyle and theirs, while not being mutually exclusive, aren't really all that similar either. Perhaps what I found most interesting was that, unlike "Swingers," I felt that maybe the characters in "Funny Ha Ha" were how I was suppose to end up. It's the feeling of experiencing the same thing at two completely different points in your life. The plot of "Funny Ha Ha" couldn't be much thinner (which I love), but the basic premise deals with the notion that the post-collegiate-urban-hipster typically finds themselves in one of two camps, 1) employed by a company you are indifferent to and thus spend your non-working hours going from party to party drinking away your boredom or 2) unemployed and thus spend your non-working hours going from party to party drinking away your boredom, and sometimes trying to look for temporary work. Both of these types are also poor communicators, despite most evidence pointing to many communications degrees scattered amongst them. I find myself closer to group #1 than to #2, but I've never been much of a hard-core drinker, and frankly find myself too motivated to be that disillusioned. But I'm watching this movie and looking at these characters in their retro-tees and bedhead and PBR and thinking, "I know that this movie is suppose to make me thankful that I'm not living in a state of post-ironic purgatory, but goddamn if that lifestyle isn't appealing!" Sure, I have a regular job and earn a decent wage, and while going from house-party to house-party might be a sorry existence, it also seems completely acceptable and dare I say necessary.
After all, the characters in "Funny Ha Ha" aren't going to die alone in the gutter. They're going to die alone (or surrounded by family... but definitely dead) in their suburban split-levels or downtown condos because people with a means usually pull it together at some point. Maybe that's why I found the film so pleasant-- there's never any real danger or real drama. The characters in this environment, as in reality, are essentially safe. Sure, there are rocky times, but this isn't Baghdad. Watching this lifestyle portrayed so perfectly on film comes off, at least to this viewer, as relatively optimistic.
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(co-creator)
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