Still, I wasn\u2019t prepared for quite how low-budget, how awkward, how mumble-y \u201cFunny Ha Ha\u201d was. The film has been called the first mumblecore movie, and after only a couple minutes, I could see that that was true. The movie takes the \u2018rough around the edges\u2019 style of the genre and really abides by it. The sound design is, frankly, terrible; when characters off-camera speak to characters on-camera, their voices are very visibly coming from different directions, and dialogue during crowded scenes is difficult to make out. The camerawork, too, is so shoddy. The movie is shot on 16mm, and it benefits from the lush texture of film, but the whole thing looks like a student film. I was expecting low-budget indie movie, but I wasn\u2019t used to this<\/em> low-budget.<\/p>\n The first few minutes, I thought, Oh god, this might actually be a terrible movie<\/em>. The technical shoddiness was hard to get past, and the acting was pretty bad in some spots. I mean, a lot of the awkwardness of the movie is intentional, but especially at the beginning, some of the line readings and expressions just looked too unnatural to even be real. One character in particular, a friend named Rachel, is just so uncomfortable to watch, especially because the camera hovers on her for a strangely long time. All her jokes are lame, and she kind of laughs as she tells them as if they should be funny, but I had no idea if I was supposed to laugh at her or if the actress was just really bad at delivering the jokes.<\/p>\n After I sank in and got used to the style of the movie, though, I was able to go along with it. After half an hour or so, I thought, Okay, I like this movie. It\u2019s clearly very early in the evolution of the movement, so it makes sense that it\u2019d be like this. But it has something to offer<\/em>. And then, by the time I reached the end, I adored it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mmimageslarge.moviemail-online.co.uk\/19922_Funny-Ha-Ha-3.JPG\")
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