Mumbleporn

DRINKING BUDDIES (C-minus) - We've previously noted the maturing of the Mumblecore movement. With that, I suppose, comes the opportunity for self-indulgent, shoestring filmmaking but now featuring B-list stars.

Here we're dealing with fauxteur Joe Swanberg ("Hannah Takes the Stairs" and not much else worth noting; he has spit out about 20 titles in 8 years as a writer/director, so they dissipate quickly). He throws together a mostly improvisational drama about two couples on shaky ground who get messed up in each others' relationships. (I'm not giving too much away here; the thin plot is telegraphed almost immediately.)

Here, Olivia Wilde (TV's "House") and Anna Kendrick ("Up in the Air") are asked to riff on an outline of a script and carry the bulk of the load up against a couple of duds played by Ron Livingston ("Office Space," and even more lethargic than usual) and Jake Johnson (TV's "The New Girl," which explains a lot). Swanberg's big idea here is to put these actors in various scenes and ask them to act like normal people just shooting pool or shooting the shit, letting his camera capture the magic. Here's the problem: No magic happens when the cast acts naturally. Watching a guy in a lumberjack beard and ironic trucker hat tease Wilde as if they're middle-schoolers or watching Kendrick pretend to play a board game is about as entertaining as watching any random couple of precious 30-year-olds banter away snarkily while sipping microbrewed beers at any random slacker gathering on a given Saturday night.

The whole experiment is just not interesting (and, sad to say, neither are the actors as actors), and that mode drags on for two-thirds of the movie. It's not until the final reel, when Wilde and Kendrick get an opportunity to cut loose -- to actually act rather than play hipster make-believe or serve as cutesy playthings -- that this production has anything of value to communicate, as it finally offers an insight or two into the female characters' needs and desires.

Swanberg has essentially filmed a series of rehearsals. Some of the scenes work; most of them don't. This is part of the process of making an interesting low-budget indie drama; but merely strung together, they don't make a complete film. Maturing as a filmmaker doesn't just mean you indulge your every idea and draw a few recognizable names to your project. For now, Swanberg is coming off as a middling talent with film stock to burn.