What in the Sam Hill is a Mumblecore?

Twentysomethings, listen to me. This is a dangerous time. The economy's in the tank, and there's little hope of your pulling off a Web 3.0. You're not going to be internet millionaires. You're not going to be greeted with flowers and sweets at Sundance. (Where are the new youth auteurs? And sorry, kids, man cannot live on Mumblecore alone!)

Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that arose in the mid-2000's. It is primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors. Filmmakers in this genre include Andrew Bujalski, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz and Joe Swanberg.

Mumblecore . . .

 
What?

 
Mumblecore.

 
Huh?

 
I said MUMBLECORE! So, what is mumblecore you may well ask? A number of film critics have devoted time and effort to defining the term and its practitioners. The movement, such as it is, is defined by low budgets, young people's stories and an almost studied smallness of intent and resolution.

The Duplass brothers, who created a stir at Sundance three years ago with the road-trip relationship film "The Puffy Chair," are part of the loose affiliation of young writer-directors known as the mumblecore movement. "Baghead" follows a group of four friends on a weekend getaway who or may not be tormented by a stranger wearing a bag over his head.