Jay & Mark Duplass – Cyrus

Known for helping pioneer what is referred today as the “mumblecore” sub-genre with their first two independent movies “The Puffy Chair” and “Baghead,” filmmaking brothers Jay and Mark Duplass move a little more into the mainstream with their third feature “Cyrus.”

Comedian Jonah Hill plays the title character, a 21-year-old man-child who tries to sabotage his mom’s (Marissa Tomei) relationship with the new man in her life (John C. Reilly).

During my interview with the Duplass brothers at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival in March, the two talked about working with more established actors and what happens when they actually disagree about something during production.

Was the experience different working with more established actors?

Jay Duplass: The hardest part is their schedules. (Laughs) That’s basically it.

Mark Duplass: Yeah, they’re busy.

JD: Yeah, they’re really busy human beings. But honestly, working with them personally, the one thing that we learned when we started dealing with really established actors is that they’re there for a reason. They’re really, really good at what they do. Mark and I were really blow away with what they bring to set on a daily basis.

What is your mind set like having to handle the relationship between Cyrus and his mom and how do make it awkward without going into that creepy tone?

MD: The way we make movies, a lot of stuff is open to interpretation for audiences. Some people look at “Cyrus” and think it’s vastly inappropriate. Some people look at it and think, “Hey, I can see that relationship. I have something similar.” And we love that about it. If you’re weird like those guys then you’ll feel like your home. If you’re a little less weird than them they’ll just be a little off and interesting to be with. Whatever you take is fine with us.

You’ve talked in the past about these 30-minute walks you take in the middle of production that freak out your producers. Can you tell me a bit more about those and is there always a conclusion or answer to them?

JD: Yeah, sometimes we don’t really have a full-blown conclusion but we always come back with something we’re gonna do whether or not that something that we feel is great or whatever. But the most important thing that Mark and I try to maintain is that we’ve added all these crew members to our process [and] we still want to just check in with each other and make sure that we’re connected about the piece of art that we’re making and what’s really happening in front of us because it’s so easy to just get caught up on the set and go with the flow on this massive beast that a film set is. We just want to make sure we’re staying true to the core elements, which are the characters, their relationships with one another, and how that story is unfolding.

What happens when you two disagree on one of these elements?

MD: We rarely disagree, honestly, but when we do it usually becomes obvious in the next five or 10 minutes that one of us is right. There is a very distinct lack of ego between us.

JD: It really all comes down to who’s more inspired about their particular idea. We may have a difference of ideas, but we’ll start talking it out and it becomes obvious at a certain point that somebody’s really on to something. It’s not necessarily that they’re even right or whatever, but it’s like that’s where the love is and that’s where we always go.

Would you ever think about doing separate projects, or is that blasphemy?

MD: That would be blasphemy, but more importantly our mother would cry.

I could see your two movies opening up on the same night and she’d have to make a decision on which one to go to.

MD: That would be terrible, yeah. But we do have our things that we do on the side. Jay makes little, small doc portraits and I do some acting stuff on the side, so that’s a good way to keep it healthy.

Cyrus

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marissa Tomei
Directed by: Jay and Mark Duplass (“Baghead”)
Written by: Jay and Mark Duplass (“Baghead”)

If anyone remembers Jonah Hill’s voluptuous role in the 2006 comedy “Grandma’s Boy,” it would be hard to imagine him playing a character any more attached to a teat (in this case literally) than he was for a majority of his screen time in that movie.

But in Jay and Mark Duplass’ “Cyrus,” Hill manages to do just that. Although he’s not hanging from a breast like a little piglet in this one, his awkward albeit loving fixation on his mother is more than enough to make even Sigmund Freud blush. In “Cyrus,” the Duplass brothers give us a modern and hilarious take on the Oedipus complex analyzed in dark-comedy form. For the Duplasses, it’s the first mainstream-ish movie of their careers.

Taking the advice from his ex-girlfriend Jamie (Catherine Keener), borderline desperate John (John C. Reilly) decides it might be time to move on with his life after their breakup seven years ago. Revealing just how socially incompetent he is at a party, John is somehow charming enough to get the attention of Molly (Marissa Tomei) before the night ends despite his best attempts to be oafish and a bit creepy.

When John decides to surprise Molly by visiting her house, he is a bit shocked to learn that her sensitive 21-year-old son Cyrus (Hill) still lives at home and clings to his mother (also his best friend) like a jumbo-sized baby. Although John wants to cut the cord, Cyrus is unwilling to allow a new man to come into his mom’s life. To make sure he won’t take a backseat to his mom’s new love interest, Cyrus makes it his mission to sabotage their relationship until John concedes his place in the peculiar love triangle.

While the Duplass brothers stick to the “mumblecore” genre they helped pioneer with their first two films “The Puffy Chair” and “Baghead,” the duo has a lot more to work with in “Cyrus.” The positive results of an increased budget and casting more established talent is evident with Reilly, Hill, and Tomei leading the way. The film, however, still comes down to the unique and talky narrative and odd characterizations the Duplasses are able to deliver.

Most impressive is how the Duplass brothers take their time with “Cyrus.” There is never a sense of eagerness most mainstream comedies of this nature have to get to the next gag or joke. Instead, it all flows without exaggeration, which is very effective especially with Reilly and Hill riffing off one another in perfect sync.

If you can handle the weird, incestuous atmosphere that lingers throughout, “Cyrus” is a must-see summer comedy that doesn’t fit the broad summer comedy mold by any means. The Duplasses have transitioned well into the big leagues and have done so, it seems, on what made them such a delight to begin with.

Humpday

Starring: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore
Directed by: Lynn Shelton (“My Effortless Brilliance”)
Written by: Lynn Shelton (“My Effortless Brilliance”)

It’s official. The fairly ambiguous subgenre known as mumblecore that reared its creative head a few years ago is the new face of independent film. For those of you who aren’t hip enough to know the term, don’t fret. There have only been a handful of films that could actually be categorized under the mumblecore umbrella and chances are you haven’t seen any of them unless, of course, you’ve sought them out as a true hardcore mumblecore fan.

“The Puffy Chair?” “Old Joy?” “Medicine for Melancholy?” Told you.

Basically, mumblecore is a do-it-yourself, ultra-cheap way of making a movie that features non-professional actors sometimes improvising dialogue-driven scripts. It has taken indie filmmaking back to its roots – back to a time when guys and gals with cameras weren’t stressing about how they were going to raise $2 million to make a cinematic labor of love.

Truth be told, mumblecore movies aren’t for everyone. But none has attempted to distance itself from the mainstream in terms of subject matter as much as Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday.” Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Independence at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Humpday” is the perfect example of why films like this turn off close-minded moviegoers.

In “Humpday,” Ben (Mark Duplass, co-director/co-writer of fellow mumblecore film “Baghead”) and his wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) are awakened in the middle of the night by an unexpected guest. Ben’s longtime friend Andrew (Joshua Leonard) has returned back to town for a visit after spending a few years doing art projects in Mexico.

It’s been quite a while, but Andrew and Ben haven’t grown apart. Still, Andrew, who is sporting a Zach Galifianakis-esque beard, is living a bohemian lifestyle while Ben has settled down with his wife and now lives in a house with a white picket fence.

But when Andrew arrives, Ben begins to feel like he needs to prove to his pal that he is still the same carefree guy he was in the past. His chance to do this comes when they learn about a local amateur pornography film festival and decide they not only want to submit a film, they want to win. But to win, Andrew and Ben agree they need a groundbreaking idea for their erotic masterpiece. Their plan: have sex with each other (they’re convinced two straight guys have never had sex for the sake of art).

Cleverly written and rich with realistic dialogue, director Lynn Shelton (“My Effortless Brilliance”) captures all the awkward conversations and silences in profound and funny homoerotic ways. It’s an outlandish premise that works mainly because of the naturalness of Duplass and Leonard’s characters. While there is some over-exaggeration in parts of the film (and in Alycia Delmore’s performance), the risqué subject matter fits quite well with most of the overplayed scenes.

Baghead

Starring: Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig
Directed by: Mark and Jay Duplass (“The Puffy Chair”)
Written by: Mark and Jay Duplass (“The Puffy Chair”)

If you want to see a couple of independent filmmakers that are doing it right, look no further than New Orleans’ own Mark and Jay Duplass. Maybe they’re not as well known as other brotherly filmmaking tandems like the Coens, Farrellys or Wachowskies, but the Duplasses, with their new film “Baghead,” have wiggled their way in to play with the big boys and refuse to let something as trivial as a budget get in the way of creating interesting characters and impressive dialogue.

Label it “mumblecore” (term describing a low-budget film with an improvised script focusing on personal relationships and delivered by non-professional actors) if you want, “Baghead” is original and refreshingly geeky.

In “Baghead,” four actor friends, who can’t seem to get a break in the industry, decide the easiest way to star in a film is if they make it themselves. To focus on writing their screenplay, Matt (Ross Partridge), Chad (Steve Zissis), Michelle (Greta Gerwig), and Catherine (Elise Muller), set off to spend the weekend in a secluded cabin in the woods so they can concentrate on nothing but the script.

Although they start with bagfuls of determination, everyone – except Matt – sort of forgets the real reason they went to the cabin in the first place. No one really has any good ideas about what to write their movie about, and teddy bearish Chad is more interested in flirting with Michelle, who he knows is way out of his league.

The dormant writing process get a bit more exciting for the fearsome foursome when Michelle swears she sees someone lurking outside the cabin with a paper bag over his head. Apparently, safety isn’t nearly as important to Matt, who is easily inspired by what Michelle has supposedly seen and decides to write a horror movie based on her vision. It doesn’t take long before eerie things begin to happen around the camp as friendships are tested, relationships stay unresolved, and filmmaking failures slowly get the best of everyone.

Highlighting the pretentiousness of amateur filmmakers, “Baghead” is a parody like no other. The Brothers Duplass are never afraid to poke fun of themselves and, in my opinion, the entire independent filmmaking industry, which has definitely been begging for an affective shake up from a couple of ordinary guys with clever ideas, a handheld video camera, and nothing to lose.

Mark and Jay Duplass – Baghead

Filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass will be the first to admit they were making some pretty bad movies at the beginning of their careers.

But with the success of their short film “The Puffy Chair” in 2005, the duo have been launched into cult status and are now in the middle of introducing their most accessible film to date.

In “Baghead,” the Duplasses tell the story of four small-time actors who stay at a cabin for the weekend where they plan to write a script for a movie. When they finally start to write a screenplay about a killer who wears a paper bag on his head, the foursome begins to see strange things in the woods and wonder if they have actually written themselves into their own horror movie.

During a phone interview with me, the Brothers Duplass talked about their new film and what it is like to be an independent filmmaker trying to get noticed in the ever-changing independent film industry.

While making “Baghead,” you must be getting worried when films like “The Orphanage” and “The Strangers” (two movies where characters also have bags over their heads) start hitting theaters before “Baghead” has wrapped.

Mark Duplass: Yeah, we quickly realized that as brilliant as we think we are, we’re not the first to come up with the concept of putting a bag over your head. We thought that might help our movie because they certainly are very different. It’s a different version of the-bag-on-the-head-thing that will make it fresh.

As independent filmmakers, do you think anyone with a good idea for a movie can simply pick up a camera and become famous?

MD: We don’t think so because we certainly don’t feel like we were overnight successes. It’s our opinion that it took us about 10 years to make anything worth watching. The overnight successes people talk about are cancelled by the pile of bad shit in their closet that they haven’t shown anyone. While we would love to support that notion of “pick up a camera, get together with your friends, and make a movie,” but we don’t believe in.

Have you run into filmmakers like “Baghead” characters Matt and Chad – two guys who talk a big game but don’t deliver?

Jay Duplass: Absolutely. The first two people we ran across were ourselves. We were totally desperate. We’ve spent a lot of time in the independent film circuit with desperate filmmakers and desperate actors. They’re a group of annoying people, but it didn’t take long for us to fall in love with them.

Do you think any independent filmmakers will take offense to some of the things you say about indie filmmakers overall?

MD: We’re not trying to make a statement about filmmakers or anything like that. First and foremost, it’s a way to poke fun at ourselves. “Baghead” is not a satire of other filmmakers or a statement to say, “Go finish your movie!” We know this impulse of trying to be famous and how funny and desperate the situation can be once you put it under a microscope.

What do you think about how the indie film scene has been changing over the years? It used to be that you could make an indie film for a few thousand dollars. I don’t think you can do that anymore when films like “Ocean’s 13” are premiering at Cannes.

JD: That definitely a concern in general. But we really can’t control it so thinking about it and obsessing about it doesn’t really help the cause. The only thing we can do in the end is make the best possible movie we can make and hopefully we won’t get edged out. We’re pretty confident that if we make a good movie, it will get out into the world. That the big lesson we’ve learned. That’s what we want to tell all independent filmmakers out there: make a good movie and the rest will follow.