As much as Mutual Appreciation is like indie rock, it's even more like real life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 6, 2022

Bujalski has a logical eye for parsing casually unfolding events with visual coherence, and his dryly satirical view of grownups' fatuities doesn't lose sight of the charming vanity of youthful illusions.

| Dec 21, 2020

Mutual Appreciation is a crappy-looking film in a tame, undistinctive, messy black-and-white way.

| Jan 28, 2019

I bet Andrew Bujalski is sick of reading that he's the voice of his generation, when most of that neo-slacker demographic has never had the opportunity to see his films.

| Mar 20, 2018

If much of what I dislike in Bujalski's filmmaking must be accounted for by my objection to the milieu his films travel in, this shouldn't suggest that the filmmaking itself is anything close to competent.

| Aug 24, 2017

You'll either be bored or fascinated by the Cassavetes-like reality of it all.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 4, 2007

The grainy, black-and-white look and the characters' ethos dovetail perfectly.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 4, 2007

The focus is narrow, but its scrutiny is absolutely unerring.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2007

Every scene in Bujalski's films is a little awkward, and just right.

| May 4, 2007

Bujalski perfectly skewers what you might call the "sort-of" generation: educated, mid-20s white Americans hemmed in by their own non-committal uncertainty.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 4, 2007

The painful honesty and geeky cool draws you in, but the film's sweet-natured humour seals the deal.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2007

Indebted to the films of Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes, Bujalski invests this love triangle with real empathy for his bumbling, hyper-articulate characters, and a sly, edgy humour.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 4, 2007

Bujalski is a shrewd comic observer, and astute enough a director to get the most of his engaging actors.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2007

Just because you shoot semi-improvised scenes in black-and-white doesn't mean you're the new Jim Jarmusch.

| May 4, 2007

Despite their lackadaisical impression, the pictures are quite tightly structured: each scene covers emotional and narrative distance. Funny, forgiving, credible and deft, they offer much to appreciate.

| May 3, 2007

The dark side of a Waldorf education.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 18, 2007

Just because it's like real life doesn't mean it's inherently interesting.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 8, 2006

To capture the mundane rhythms of everyday existence without being tedious is a tough task, which makes the difficulties [director] Bujalski has had getting his films distributed a puzzling and frustrating thing.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 8, 2006

Already an indie fan favourite thanks to the no-budget romp Funny Ha Ha, director Andrew Bujalski here slays the sophomore slump with another scruffy but bang-on look at life in the slow lane.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 8, 2006

The shaggy honesty is bracing and the modest stories of young adults too tentative and nervous to do more than talk around an issue have a perceptive authenticity that doesn't shake off easily.

| Original Score: A | Dec 7, 2006