#andrew bujalski

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[rrrauschen]

Andrew Bujalski, {2002} Funny Ha Ha

[dare-g]

There There (2022)

[addictivecontradiction]

Computer chess, 2013

[disappointingyet]

Results

Director Andrew Bujalski Stars Kevin Corrigan, Cobie Smulders, Guy Pearce USA 2025 Language English 1hr 45mins Colour

Well-crafted grown-up comedy set in the fitness world

Results is a comedy about three unhappy people. With Danny (Kevin Corrigan), it’s easy to see that all is not well: he’s rattling around a huge, mostly unfurnished house alone, out of shape and out of sorts. Trevor (Guy Pearce) and Kat (Cobie Smulders), on the other hand, are both lean and driven but, it turns out, equally adrift. 

Trevor owns a gym called Positive 4 Life but his personal life undermines his professional bullshit. Kat’s unhappiness manifests as bursts of rage, which she’ll try to run off, not always successfully. Trevor and Kat have been having sex, maybe not super-wise as he’s her boss. And then Danny comes to the gym and Kat becomes his personal trainer and the misery of the three collides.

The film Andrew Bujalski made after this one was Support The Girls, one of my favourite movies of the past 10 years. By anyone else’s standards, Results would be a small-scale, low-key movie. By Bujalski’s standards, it almost feels like an attempt to go mainstream. 

Pearce was, for a while, an actual movie star. Cobie Smulders’ level of fame was the subject of earnest debate when I was working on celebrity magazines: on the one hand, she was one of stars of How I Met Your Mother, which ran for nine seasons and (at least over here in the UK) is still constantly on TV. She’s also in many of the Marvel movies and TV shows. So her level of face recognition is high but mention her name and you’re likely to get a blank look.

Even in the supporting roles in Results there are once-famousish folks like Giovanni Ribisi and Anthony Michael Hall. 

And the film looks clean and unfussily shot. Again, that’s only notable in the context of the director’s career. His previous film, Computer Chess, was filmed in low-quality 1980s black & white analogue video, which made it distinctive and characterful according to some critics and really hard to watch according to everyone else (yes, even me.)

So what we have is a straightforward character comedy with some gentle digs at the fitness industry. It stands or falls on: is it funny? Are these people plausible? Is them talking entertaining? 

I’d say yes to all these things. Pearce is particularly good, or maybe just the one who surprised me – in American movies I think of him as either action hero or villain. Here he gets to be a bit deluded, a bit vulnerable, stubbornly optimistic while also patently depressed. And he gets to use his Australian accent.

Results isn’t as distinctive as Bujalski’s early films nor as strong as Support The Girls (no shame in that) but taken on its own terms it gets almost everything right.

[junosfilmjournal]

funny ha ha (2002) dir. andrew bujalski

college grad, marnie (kate dollenmeyer) is still figuring out what she wants to do with her life. dealing with a tiresome temp job and an unrequited crush on one of her friends, marnie tries to make the best of her everyday life.

[aspirationalbrand]

results (2015)

[frankenpagie]

5.29.25

[unorganisedbookshelf]

funny ha ha is one of the most charming and strangely endearing films i’ve watched in a long time, low-budget art is a beautiful thing

[50books50movies]

Results

Cobie Smulders threads the needle in making Kat prickly and short-tempered while remaining likable, and Guy Pearce is really charming because he genuinely believes in what his Trevor is selling even though he doesn’t actually understand himself as well as he thinks. It’s an unconventional romantic comedy, and it unfolds at its own pace

[davidhudson]

Happy 47th, Andrew Bujalski.

[lascitasdelashoras]

Andrew Bujalski - Mutual apprecition

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Watching

THERE THERE Andrew Bujalski USA, 2022

[dare-g]

Getting Stoned with Caveh

[addictivecontradiction]

Computer chess, 2013

[burberrycanary]

Movies I enjoyed in 2024 🎬

Thanks for tagging me, @booksandabeer 🍻

Rules: post 9 films you saw for the first time this year and enjoyed, brand new or not but that are new to you, then tag 9 people.

My main criterion for picking these ended up being which films continue to haunt me, such that I think about them regularly—they gnaw at me a little. And I will happily admit that's a funny operational definition of "enjoy." All the same, here are my first-seen-in-2024 picks:

Z (dir. Costa-Gavras)

Funny Ha Ha (dir. Andrew Bujalski)

All That Jazz (dir. Bob Fosse)

Plein Soleil / Purple Noon (dir. René Clément)*

Yukinojō Henge / An Actor's Revenge (dir. Kon Ichikawa)

This Gun For Hire (dir. Frank Tuttle)

Breaking the Waves (dir. Lars von Trier)

Tiny Furniture (dir. Lena Dunham)

Meghe Dhaka Tara / The Cloud-Capped Star (dir. Ritwik Ghatak)

* Seeing Plein Soleil on a gorgeous newly restored 35mm print was one of the highlights of my film-watching year!

This has been going around for a little, so if you'd like to play and haven't, I'm tagging @village-skeptic, @bromcommie, @arctic-turtle-cassiopeia, @theelectricpeach, @moggett, @between-a-ship-and-a-hard-place, @jandjsalmon, @musette22 and @onecontinuoussigh.

(And if you have played and I missed your list, I'd love to see it!)