The Boston-made feature debut of writer-director Andrew Bujalski was hailed as the advent of the "mumblecore" movement—in this case, a practically freeform slacker comedy about a girl so commitment-shy she can hardly even commit to finishing a sentence (then again, the same goes for everybody else on screen).
Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer), age 23-going-on-24, has been fired from her job and suffered a breakup with her boyfriend, which may account for her tentative and uncertain disposition. Or possibly she's just like that all the time. She tries to find work amidst her peers, only to realize they are all in IT or engineering, and she brings absolutely no skills to the table. After an unsatisfying temping gig, Marnie relies on a connection to become a personal assistant to a research scientist.
Despite her indecisiveness (or maybe because of it), the heroine attracts the attention of many young guys, but she only half-heartedly reciprocates. The most ardent suitor is Alex (Christian Rudder), the nephew of the scientist. During yet another of their inconclusive "hanging out" dates, Marnie considers moving to another town. Or something.
That's about it. Funny Ha Ha is one of those films that one either "gets" or one doesn't. It is certainly a realistic, Generation Y portrait that has stuck, for better or worse, of inarticulate young people who don't know what they want and can't express how to get it. The virtue is that—unlike other culty features—there is little here to give buyers offense, other than profanity and some scenes of drunkenness (seemingly the one occasion in which Marnie acts decisively and tries to save a friend from making a terrible mistake).
Funny Ha Ha plays today like an entry in the briefly voguish "Dogme95" school of ultra-minimalist, stripped-down filmmaking. Sticklers will point out that the use of 16mm film, tripods, and some rather ugly artificial lighting disqualifies it from true Dogme "certification." However. Indie-oriented as well as mainstream library shelves could stock the widely praised title if only to offer a bonus lesson for novice filmmakers that they don't need huge budgets, big stars, gimmicky genre concepts, or f/x to make a splash. Sometimes the opposite works just as well. Or something. (