Hipsters Gone Viral

Hey guys, hope everyone is having a good weekend! For this week’s blog, I will be discussing LOL and the corresponding article, and Marcus will be discussing Tumblr. Feel free to comment on both or just one of the topics. While the movie doesn’t seem to be on Trunk yet, the DVD is available in Tisch in case you aren’t able to find an online version.  Also, here is a link to the article:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v050/50.4.christian.html

       

To start off, I want to discuss and provide some background information on the particular style of the film, known as Mumblecore. Mumblecore originated as a small film movement consisting of predominantly young, white, male filmmakers creating cheap, realist movies that portray the lives of other young people of the early twenty-first century. The style has somewhat of a DIY or documentary-like feel to it, due to the relatively poor visual quality, realist plots, and excessive use of the close-up. Mumblecore tends to focus on themes prevalent to the dawn of the digital age, honing in on the struggles for intimacy and emotional connection amongst a generation whose lives have become centralized outside of the physical reality. With the conscious exclusion of social, racial, and political issues, it has the ability to capture a unique perspective on individualism in the current generation in an attempts to create somewhat of a utopic or idealist experience. Mumblecore films, therefore, embody the “hyper-individualistic” search for both intimacy and authenticity. Ironically enough, the films also tend to deconstruct these notions as they generally include characters and plots that embody fakeness and disconnect.

Joe Swanberg’s film LOL is the prototypical mumblecore film. Each of the characters is involved in the hopeful search for intimacy, realism, and connection in a generation and an environment that directly opposes such desires. For example, Alex desires a relationship with a girl he discovers on an erotic website; Tim struggles to maintain his relationship because he is constantly on his computer; Chris’s trouble with his long-distance relationship all take place over the phone, and center around issues involving of digital communication and lack of physical connection. The binding theme within all of these character’s trouble with intimacy and connection lead me to my first major question: To what extent is the current generation’s inability to build meaningful relationships a product of technology and the digital age? Furthermore, how does this dual search for both individuals and social connection in the digital age relate to hipster culture? We have discussed social media and the internet as being platforms for the hipster “aesthetic” and for promoting the current subculture. With this in mind, to what extent are hipsterdom and the search for intimacy through online communication simply quests for truth and a “unified self?”

I also want to briefly discuss the techniques used in the film that are unique to the mumblecore style. Swanberg frequently uses extreme close-ups (parallelling the webcam style of the digital age), and poor visual quality to create a particular aesthetic. For example, a good portion of the film is made up of Alex’s “noiseheads” (filmed in a close-up “Real World” style) and grainy, low quality images from Chris’s cell phone. What does this visual aesthetic reflect about the digital age and its effect on intimacy and interpersonal connections? Furthermore, how does this style connect the audience to the personal desires of the characters in the film (similarly to the emergence of vlogs, webcams, and the age of YouTube)?

Finally, I want to address the last line of the article, which states, “The search for the real is lonely and desperate but is in itself satisfying.” How does this quote relate to hipsterdom, and more specifically hipsters' use of digital culture and social media?