Screening Time: Friday, May 2, 7:00 PM, Charles Theatre 3

Director: Andre Bujalski

Cast: Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Myles Paige, Jennifer L. Schaper

Country: U.S.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 90 mins
Format: 16mm

Marnie is a 20-something college educated slacker who is over-qualified to be a temp, but under-qualified to deal with the day-to-day real life dilemmas of dating, finding love or some sort of meaning to life.

Funny Ha Ha deftly observes the inherent silliness of post-college life in contemporary America. Anchored by a revelatory performance by Kate Dollenmayer, who makes it seem effortless, Funny Ha Ha creates a landscape entirely populated by a cast of non-professional actors, all perfectly cast as the kind of aimless 20-somethings who would end up doing a favor for a friend by acting in an independent film just like this. The film also features a solid comic turn by Andrew Bujalski, the film's writer/director, as one of Marnie's awkward prospective suitors.

Funny Ha Ha is an anachronistic indie film. (That is meant as a compliment.) It's the sort of work-made by the likes of John Cassevettes and Mike Leigh—that defined independent filmmaking a generation ago. Infused with the wry minimalism of early Jarmush and the meandering stream-of-consciousness observations of Richard Linklater's best works, writer/director Andrew Bujalski has crafted a funny blend of absurdity and naturalism.

--Gabriel Wardell

Presented By: Andrew Bujalski

Andrew Bujalski makes his feature film directorial debut after living and working on films in various capacities in Mississippi, Texas, California, and Massachusetts. He subscribes to the philosophy set forth by director Mike Leigh that the world that filmmakers and actors create together should "go around corners," that is, the world should feel complete, that it continues beyond the edges of the frame. That you can understand that the characters have vibrant, real, complex lives before the movie begins, after it ends, and while they're offscreen.