Funny Ha Ha (2003)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Feature: C+

 

 

Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha (2003) tells the story of Marnie (Kate Dollenmeyer) and how she is trying to deal with her future.  This includes meeting new and different guys, her work future and being honest with her life situation.  Writer/director/editor Bujalski has a good cast and good ideas, but they hit more rough spots than they should and what could have been great is undermined by inexperience.

 

With that said, there is a naturalness (for a change) to this independent work that is not pretentious and that is why it has had the limited success and notoriety it has had to date.  However, it is frustrating that simple reconsiderations here and there could have put this one over the top and made it even more commercially successful.  We’ll have to see what Bujalski’ does next.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is soft, looks like it was shot in low-def digital and is too shaky too often for its own good, as shot by Matthias Grunsky, sabotaging the script and film overall.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and shows its low budget limits.  Extras include a “Russian Scholar” audio commentary stills and “radio play” of sorts.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo