At a time when lo-fi music is getting a lot of attention from critics and listeners alike, it’s not surprising to find a similar movement emerging from film. Dubbed “Mumblecore,” these movies forsake high production value for handheld, affordable cameras and a production style that emphasizes improvisation – whether it be camera angles or dialogue. The posterboys for Mumblecore are Jay and Mark Duplass, two brothers that have gotten some attention for their movies including Baghead, and last year’s Humpday (both of which are availible of Netflix Streaming.) They’ve come far enough that, despite taking advantage of low-budget limitations to inform their films’ style, their newest film, Cyrus, was actually financed by a major studio.
Whereas you can easily imagine filmmakers doing totally different things with their budgets when they expand from five to seven digits, it turns out that Cyrus keeps the same aesthetic. The only difference here is that, instead of using themselves and their friends as actors, Cyrus has some pretty well-known talent in front of the camera.
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