mumblecore

[muhm-buhl-kawr]

noun

1. a genre of film or television typically characterized by naturalistic dialogue, a small budget, relatively unknown actors, and a plot focused on interpersonal relationships.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mumblecore¹

mumble ( def. ) + -core ( def. ); said to have been coined in 2005 by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor at the South by Southwest festival

Example Sentences

Now far enough removed from his mumblecore roots in films like “Kicking and Screaming” and “The Squid and the Whale,” Baumbach is something of a tycoon himself.

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He kept costs low, cast his friends and family in his movies and pursued an improvisational production style that preceded the early-2000s film genre mumblecore.

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I’m unconvinced the naturalistic cinematography was the right call — it makes the script’s fizzy hijinks come off a tad too mumblecore — but there’s a fantastic sequence of Carey getting buddy-buddy with Ashley’s lovers and a brawl that goes much further than you expect.

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This is unsurprising given that the movie is directed by indie darling Greta Gerwig, who achieved early fame in the mumblecore movement, acting in very small, self-conscious films about relationships between offbeat people.

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“Barbie” director and onetime mumblecore hero Greta Gerwig and that movie’s star, Margot Robbie, responded in kind by also posting photos of themselves holding tickets to both “Mission: Impossible” and “Oppenheimer” in front of each film’s respective poster.

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