Bujalski’s abiding fascination with and respect for work twists ironically around his characters’ preference for its straightforward demands over the open-ended ambiguities of love.

| Mar 10, 2023

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 16, 2011

It is typical of Bujalski's finely wrought observation of their lives that the film ends, as it began, with a moment in which Lauren is poised, indecisively, on the cusp of a decision.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 8, 2011

Ultimately a dull story about dull thirtysomethings whose dull issues are conveyed in a prying, cinema verit style, implying drama and meaning in the mundane details of their dull lives.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2011

Andrew Bujalski ought to be more than a critical darling by this point.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2011

Don't expect intensity of any kind in Bujalski's films; the emotions range from mild annoyance to bemusement, but within that minimal palette he's a master.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 6, 2010

Beeswax can be summed up by one lingering shot, where the camera focuses, for no particular reason, on Maggie Hatcher's armpit hair. Like armpit hair, Beeswax is sweaty, unpleasant, in need of cutting, and without a point.

| Jun 7, 2010

The primary appeal most mumblecore films hold for me is the comfort of knowing that I have never met any of these people and probably never will.

| Original Score: 5/10 | May 1, 2010

A collection of small moments and awkward interactions, this low-key drama has a home-made feel to it. But it's so rambling and aimless, with characters that aren't particularly likeable, that it's difficult to find much resonance in it.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 22, 2010

It's weirdly gripping, an authentically banal slice of life. Mumblecore must die. But maybe from its ashes will come something spikier, stranger.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2010

A relentlessly talky and meandering slough of claustrophobia passing itself off as an intimate life study.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 15, 2010

More than ever, Bujalski comes across like the natural heir to someone like Eric Rohmer, an artist who creates intricate, perceptive and artful cinema that rejects unnecessary style and contrivance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 15, 2010

It takes real talent to make something so studied feel this souffl-light, especially in the Hatchers' charming naturalism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2010

A step forward, but a sluggish one.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 14, 2010

This amazing little gem simply blew me away with its loving voice of reason.

| Original Score: A | Apr 11, 2010

It's rambling, doesn't really go anywhere, and is not necessarily about anything beyond its own sense of place. But it's mildly diverting nonetheless. It's about mood, not plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 12, 2010

Makes up in depth for what it sacrifices in breadth.

| Feb 8, 2010

Provides no interesting challenges for its characters or profound thoughts about life.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 4, 2010

Beeswax reminds viewers that in talkative films much can go unspoken. For writer-director Andrew Bujalski these betwixt-between, hem-haw spaces are the places to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 16, 2009

if Beeswax doesn't feel as significant as his last film, Mutual Appreciation, it's that movie's equal in terms of lovingly gnomic characters and very real anxieties.

| Oct 15, 2009