My Effortless Brilliance

Effortless? Perhaps. Brilliant? Not Exactly. An Enjoyable, But Very Slight, Indie Improv
I can honestly say that Lynn Shelton's "Humpday" is one of the most undervalued films I've seen in a while. I know it has its detractors, but I felt it was a spot-on comedy of awkwardness and bluster featuring three terrific lead performances! So checking out the director's other work was a no-brainer. Shelton's micro indie "My Effortless Brilliance" fits comfortably in the same wheelhouse but it is evident that the film is a precursor to the more accomplished "Humpday." Still an enjoyable excursion into improv drama, "My Effortless Brilliance" may suffer from being too slight. It's pleasant without being memorable. If you're fans of this genre (and if you don't readily identify what this genre is--you probably aren't), I'd definitely recommend the film. If you're just discovering it, however, try "Humpday" or a Duplass brothers' film and then revisit this one.

The story, what there is of one, is really secondary to the actors riffing off one another. A...

The Cougar in the Room
A super-realistic and believable slice of life somewhat akin to 'Old Joy' (is Shelton engaged in some sort of mimetic rivalry with Reichardt?) but for me more likable than that fine film--one which left me feeling a little like Socrates who preferred the Polis to the forest 'because trees don't talk.'

Also Director Shelton is clearly more interested in Male Psychology in itself and the ways in which a nature-setting might bring out character particularities, rather than nature as stark elemental contrast to the human tragi-comedy as Reichardt would seem to have it.

The film begins as a minor, rather voyeuristic, character study of the main character--a zeitgeisty fiction writer who became a literary sensation with his first work 'My Effortless Brilliance' and is now--years later--in the throes of another (actually third) book. But very soon we move from this cloistered world to the great outdoors--hardly a realm within our writer's comfort zone.

You...



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