Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, New Releases, DVD Reviews, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

Only connect. — E.M Forster

The phone’s off the hook, but you’re not. — X

In Joe Swanberg’s LOL, three men — Alex, an aspiring musician (Kevin Brewersdorf), Chris, a student trying to sustain a long-distance relationship (C. Mason Wells) and Tim, a slightly smug young man in a seemingly-stable relationship (director Swanberg) — can’t quite connect with other humans. They’ve got the tools — cellphones, e-mail, video — but they don’t seem to have the temperament. Or possibly the tools are the problem — they’ve got so many open channels in their life that all they can manufacture out is the hum of the wires, so many sources of distraction they’re waiting for what’s next instead of looking at what’s now.

Articles have been written — and will, somewhat regrettably, continue to be written — about how Swanberg, along with similar writer-directors like Andrew Bujalski , Aaron Katz and Jay Duplass, constitute a new movement called ‘mumblecore.’ that nomenclature suggests an enthusiasm for categorization more hearty

than well-thought-out; whether Swanberg, Bujalski, Katz and Duplass are a movement, next you and your close friends are a political party. These film makers have affinities, similarities, personal friendships and professional connections; at the same day, whether you asked the ‘mumblecore’ film makers to articulate a Dogme 95-style manifesto, you’d probably be waiting a while for your reply.

With that aside — and looking at LOL in and of itself — the good news is that the new DVD release is a strong and well-crafted disc of a strong and well-crafted film. LOL is fragmentary — overheard phone conversations, snippets of video, voice mail messages, instant data sessions amoung two humans in the same room — and you get that Swanberg’s suggesting the same about contemporary life. The technique in LOL is reasonably distancing at the start; as the film progresses, you understand that Swanberg’s making a mosaic out of brittle pieces, and you see the big picture as you step back. It’s not an a-to-b-to-c narrative; neither is life.

Continue reading Review: LOL

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Original post by James Rocchi