Sunday Word: Mumblecore

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mumblecore [muhm-buhl-kawr]

noun:
a genre of film or television typically characterized by naturalistic dialogue, a small budget, relatively unknown actors, and a plot focused on interpersonal relationships; a genre of narrative film focusing primarily on the intimate lives of young characters and featuring scenes of ample dialogue and minimal action

Examples:

The pathbreaking Amazon original series has been battered by scandal and missteps, and its movie-length finale ditches its onetime star and morphs from mumblecore dramedy to an entirely more bombastic genre. (Spencer Kornhaber, Transparent Ends With an Act of Musical Trolling, The Atlantic, September 2019)

Gerwig made a big impression early on in several microbudget, semi-improvised movies with director Joe Swanberg, so she was lumped in with the unfortunately named 'mumblecore' movement of movies where hipsters jammed in coffee shops and nothing much happened. (Chris Hewitt, Now's the perfect time to catch up with inventive writer/director/actor Greta Gerwig, Star Tribune, August 2020)

The tiny/arty film movement known as 'mumblecore' has built an entire bemused worldview out of the perspective of overeducated, undermotivated twentysomething guys who can't commit to a declarative statement, let alone a career or girlfriend. (Chris Hewitt, Grow up! Film and TV coddle the man-child, Entertainment Weekly, October 2007)

One of the guiding lights of the character-driven, relationship-obsessed mumblecore film movement and a longtime favorite of the Maryland Film Festival, Swanberg will be in Baltimore this weekend for the latest installment in the MFF’s 'Behind the Screens' series. (Chris Kaltenbach, Director Joe Swanberg to discuss how streaming services have changed film at the Parkway, The Baltimore Sun, November 2017)

Origin:

mumble + -core; said to have been coined in 2005 by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor at the South by Southwest festival (Dictionary.com)

Though the word can be traced back to 2005, it has become widely used only in the latter part of 2007. It’s a film genre whose name reflects the low esteem in which it is held by critics. In August, the International Herald Tribune said, "Specimens of the genre share a low-key naturalism, low-fi production values and a stream of low-volume chatter often perceived as ineloquence. Hence the name: mumblecore."

You might add ultra-low budgets, independent production, improvised dialogue and non-professional actors to the list of features. The genre, the article went on to say, is more a loose collective or even a state of mind than an actual aesthetic movement. However, it has been getting a lot of attention recently and has been named a Hot Genre by Rolling Stone magazine. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram of Texas reflected the uncertainty about its enduring value in a catchline in a story on 4 November about the Lone Star International Film Festival: "Mumblecore: The future of cinema or just really annoying nonsense?" Among the mumblecore films most often mentioned are Funny Ha Ha and Hannah Takes the Stairs. (World Wide Web)