SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

At Sundance: four brothers, two movies, many laughs, Austin-style

By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM CRITIC
Thursday, January 24, 2008

PARK CITY, Utah — Brother filmmaking teams abound: the Maysles, Coens, Hugheses, Warchowskis. With the Duplass and Zellner brothers, who specialize in micro-budget indie comedies that mine humor from the banal, dreary and heartbreaking, Austin lays claim to two of the funniest, most frugal and most prolific of these blood-bound couples

Not often noted: Brother filmmaking teams are sort of nerdy. They're unconsciously little-boyish in the way they stick together, relying on each other for support, both creative and moral. Genetically tuned, they finish each other's sentences, crack each other up, all swaddled in familial fuzziness. Of course they fight. But squabbles melt into hugs and mopey apologies streaked with "bro" and "dude."

The Duplass and Zellner brothers are like this, and it's sweet, even enviable. Firm friends since their days at the University of Texas in the '90s, the teams of David and Nathan Zellner and Mark and Jay Duplass continue their run of screeing movies at film festivals around the world. Both duos are showing feature comedies at Sundance this week. It's the Duplass' second full feature and the Zellner's first, and it's the second time they've presented movies at Sundance at the same time.

The Duplasses boast the more accomplished resumé. Their comedy "The Puffy Chair" played Sundance in 2005, was picked up for theatrical distribution and netted raves and the attention of Hollywood, where Mark and Jay now live and work. After they shoot another bare-bones indie in April in New Orleans, they will direct a multi-million-dollar comedy they wrote for Fox Searchlight. (They also have a deal with Universal.)

David and Nathan are tall, cheery and balding. They live and work in Austin. Their Sundance feature, "Goliath," a bizarre dark comedy about a lost cat and its owner's lost wits, was shot in Austin. Mark and Jay are shorter with thick, tousled hair. They split time between Los Angeles and Austin. "Baghead," their Sundance entry, was shot in Austin, Bastrop and Smithville.

Lumped into the indie sub-genre "mumblecore" — DIY verité films featuring young actors who pause and stammer with unscripted bafflement — the brother teams help out on each other's shoots. At Sundance, they helped each other out in a group interview, which is filled with fraternal goofing.

American-Statesman: So, this is a nice alignment of the stars, having the two famous Austin filmmaking brother teams at Sundance together, each with a feature film. Any comment?

David Zellner:It's twice the fun!

Nathan Zellner: I'd say it's four times the fun.

Mark Duplass: When "The Puffy Chair" played in 2005, the Zellners actually had a short film that played before our movie. We've been to a bunch of festivals together. And at South by Southwest last year, we did a group showing of our shorts ("Zellner vs. Duplass: a Sibling Rivalry in Short Form").

David Zellner:Instead of doing a Q-and-A about the shorts, which we've done to death, we did a WWF smackdown wrestling thing. We scrambled to get ridiculous costumes together.

Jay Duplass: Mark and I wore unitards. It was really disgusting. We were the "British Bulldogs" and they were like macho-man rockers.

David Zellner:We showed the movies, and then we were going to have a big fight, but we broke out into "Lean on Me." It was so cringe-worthy and amazing.

Jay Duplass: It was awful, so awful. (All laughing)

Is it weird to you guys how often your movies get into Sundance?

David Zellner: It comes after a decade of struggling.

Mark Duplass: And rejection.

David Zellner: We've been rejected by all the best, including Sundance.

Mark Duplass: And all the worst.

Jay Duplass: Our favorite rejection is when our short "This is John" got into Sundance and they told us "Over 5,000 films were submitted. You are one of 90 films accepted." The next week we get a letter from the San Antonio Underground Film Festival apologizing that we weren't accepted because "We had over 200 film submissions this year." We kept that letter.

Talk a bit about your films, starting with the Duplasses and "Baghead."

Mark Duplass: It was born out of our experiences on the festival circuit with "Puffy Chair." The idea is that we are around desperate people constantly — desperate filmmakers, desperate actors — people trying so hard. And we are among them.

At the start of the movie, it feels like a parody of the film festival world, then it becomes more affectionate.

Mark Duplass: Those people are so annoying at first, with their strategic beards and such, but once you spend time with them, they're so lovable. It's so "Rocky."

David Zellner: Desperation is so compelling, and it's great fodder for humor, too.

Mark Duplass: Yeah, there's a lot of tragically funny stuff there, and that's kind of our thing.

What about "Goliath," which I found funny but really twisted? I see it as the love child of David Lynch and Mike Judge. David, you play the rather cracked lead, who runs around with a mini-chainsaw.

David Zellner: It's called a pole saw. For years, I would look at it at Home Depot like a kid looking at a toy. I hadn't seen it on film before, and I thought, "That needs to be in a movie so bad, and I want to do it!" It was lust. And when I finally got it, I was giddy.

Jay Duplass: You're experiencing classic Zellner brothers. You can start a movie with the idea of using a pole saw and make a great (expletive) feature!

The conversation turns to the brothers praising what they like about each other's movies, trading laughs and compliments.

Mark Duplass:Do you guys realize this interview is turning into that Chris Farley bit (on "Saturday Night Live"), where we just compliment each other's movies? "Remember that part in the movie? That was awesome!"

You follow a long tradition of brother filmmaking teams. How do you work together — who does what?

David Zellner: We bounce ideas off each other, mostly through e-mail. The idea will get fleshed out over time. It works well because we have different strengths, and it provides a checks and balances system. Since we're brothers, there's no (nonsense), and it's OK to get into fights.

Nathan Zellner: David is the primary writer-director, and I'm the primary producer and editor. But it all overlaps.

David Zellner: It's totally 50/50.

Could any of you imagine working alone?

David Zellner: Not now. It's too hard.

Jay Duplass:I think that's why there are so many brother teams. Just directing alone is such a giant task. Sometimes you're sitting with something that either disgusts or confuses you. To be able to bounce it off to somebody else, even the smallest things, is great. Sometimes one of us is feeling the scene and the other is not, and maybe Mark feels it and knows where to go with it. . . . We split chores. On "Baghead," I shot it and he boomed it.

David Zellner:We've always worked with our brothers ever since making home movies as kids, so you already have that shorthand down.

Jay Duplass: And there's no deciphering. I tell Mark and idea, and I don't even have to ask his response: It's on his face.

David Zellner: There's no dancing around. The thing is to know what you're going for.

Mark Duplass:A shared vision of what you're doing.

All of your films are technically raw, loosely scripted, spontaneous, shot on hand-held cameras, extremely idiosyncratic, though naturalistic. How would you describe what kind of films you make?

Mark Duplass: Jay and I have a hard time coming up with influences because any "style" is surely out of function. We shoot our movies like documentaries. Our actors are running around. We have no idea where they're going to be because there's no blocking and no rehearsals, so Jay is catching them on camera like a documentary. Jay has really gotten good at that kind of chaos over the years.

David Zellner: I think it's misleading how effortless it might look. There's a lot of skill shooting on the fly like that. You have to know what you're doing, often a couple of beats ahead of the action.

As contemporaries, are you, the Zellners, mad with jealousy that the Duplasses have earned the big Hollywood break?

David Zellner: It's totally inspiring. Once you've been doing it for so long and you're in it for the long haul, you see that's just the way it goes. It's so cool to see good pals who are also really talented break through and make their mark.

And because your aesthetics are so similar, it's almost like the Duplasses are blazing a trail for you.

David Zellner:(Laughing) We creep behind.

Mark Duplass: We like to keep the Zellner brothers a good 18 months behind us, nice and comfortable.

David Zellner: Yeah, peeking from the bushes. We only did a feature film so we can be here with you! (Everyone cracks up.)