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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alan, Lawrence and Ellie, intersecting here and there with a circle of acquaintances and strangers, insinuate themselves into the viewer's heart like good friends.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 24, 2006

Shooting in black-and-white 16mm, Bujalski nods to the pre-Sundance personal cinema of the '50s and '60s. His little circle of pals, though, offers little to outsiders looking in.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 10, 2006

The film's mood and style are pitched somewhere between '60s American indie and French New Wave and, as you watch these people, they seem painfully, amusingly on-target.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 9, 2006

The movie is made of small moments; they add up in your mind to something bigger later, the way life does outside of movies.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 30, 2006

Mutual Appreciation appropriates a seemingly improvised vérité style that's ideal for a cast of characters of no tremendous ambition.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 20, 2006

The kind of movie whose dialogue mostly hews to the rhythms of 'like, you know, whatever' but then occasionally throws in a word such as 'puissance.' And, like, it totally works.

| Oct 19, 2006

There is no denying the director-screenwriter's ability to capture a certain real-life quality on film.

Full Review | Oct 6, 2006

Bujalski's writing is so good, and every shot and edit seems exactly right.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 29, 2006

You can't exactly call it progress, but it is thrilling (in a low-key sort of way) to see real young adults looking and acting the way they do, light years away from the toothy flesh-bots that have supplanted them on screen.

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