"Funny Ha Ha" portrays realistic everyday characters struggling, and ultimately succeeding, to communicate.
Despite its title, Funny Ha Ha is only funny in the colloquial sense of strange. With virtually no budget and a cast of unknowns, writer-director-editor Andrew Bujalski creates a fictional slice-of-life look at alcohol-addicted recent college graduates who wander from job to job and relationship to relationship within a middle-class neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ambiguity and Indecisiveness
The group revolves around a cute 23-year-old named Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer) who, like her friends, is trapped in a world of ambiguity and indecisiveness between youth and adult. Drunk, confused, and always inarticulate, Marnie enters a tattoo parlor, but hasn’t decided on a design, isn’t sure where she wants it, and might back out if it hurts too much. Thus begins our entry into Marnie’s – like, I mean, you know, I guess, I don’t know, uh – conversations that go nowhere and decisions that change as soon as they’re reached.
Marnie loves Alex (Christian Rudder), a guy who rejects her one-minute and asks her out the next. His tortuous indecision is mirrored in Marnie’s relationship with Mitchell (Bujalski), a nerdy co-worker at her temporary job. Her mixed messages would confound anyone; Marnie says she has a boyfriend, doesn’t have a boyfriend, is available, likes him, but isn’t interested. Then they spend lots of time together.
Spontaneous Adventure
Awkward, uncomfortable, and unpredictable, Funny Ha Ha has a meandering storyline and seemingly improvised, nonsensical dialogue that often reflects today’s youth. Bujalski captures this “spontaneous adventure” through hand-held camera work, abrupt beginnings and endings, and a rough, almost documentary style of fly-on-the-wall filmmaking that earned him an Independent Spirit Award, in addition to other awards from entertainment magazines and film festivals.
In this film, his 2002 debut as writer, director, editor, and actor, Bujalski establishes himself as an ultimate observer of his generation. He has since directed, written, and edited the films Peoples House and Mutual Appreciation, and written and starred in Hannah Takes the Stairs. The quirky romantic comedy Funny Ha Ha remains a little-known independent curiosity worth watching.
- Funny Ha Ha
- Director: Andrew Bujalski
- Run time: 90 minutes
- Rating: Not Rated
- DVD Bonus Features: An Outsider Perspective from a Russian Scholar (an intentionally ridiculous commentary describing the deeper meaning of the film); A Radio Play (a “spontaneous” telephone conversation about nothing); Portrait Gallery (cartoon illustrations of the main characters drawn by Lissa Patton Rudder); Theatrical Trailer; Trailer Gallery.
For more DVD reviews, read Across the Universe and Blades of Glory
