''LOL'' is a 2006 independent

mumblecore Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent filmHoberman, J. (August 14, 2007).It's Mumblecore!. ''The Village Voice''. Retrieved on July 27, 2008.Lim, Dennis (August 19, 2007)Mumblecore – The New Talkies: Generation DIY ''The New York Times''. Retr ...

film by

Joe Swanberg Joseph Swanberg (born August 31, 1981) is an American independent film director, producer, writer, and actor. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film mov ...

that examines the impact of technology on social relations. It is an improvised film that premiered in 2006 at the

South By Southwest Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

and was later released on DVD.

Plot

The movie follows three recent college graduates in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

: Tim, Chris and Alex. Tim watches the screen of his laptop as he makes out with his girlfriend. Chris conducts relationships by cellphone. Alex's preoccupation with

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

sabotages a potential face-to-face relationship with a girl he meets at a party. Videos called "noisehead" appear throughout the film. Within the film, the character Alex takes videos of people making noises and then edits those videos into music videos.

Production

Swanberg first thought of making the film in the summer of 2005, originally knowing that he wanted to direct a film that was based on relationships and technology although he had no ideas beyond that. With the help of his friend Chris Wells, they originally thought of creating a DVD that showed scenes at random and in a different order every viewing. During the filming, Swanberg and Wells came up with the film's plot. Kevin Bewersdorf, who starred in the film, also created all of the film's soundtrack and produced the "noisehead" videos which are interspersed throughout the film. Everything in the film was improvised and the plot had to be continually adjusted as the project progressed. Swanberg was the film's producer, director, editor, DP, and writer. He also had a role in the film and his friends were fine with working without compensation.

Greta Gerwig Greta Celeste Gerwig (; born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter, and director. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films b ...

was Wells' actual girlfriend. The two influences for the film were the comedians

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

and

Ricky Gervais Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office'' (2001–2003), '' Extras'' (2005–2007), and '' An Idiot Abroad' ...

. ''LOL'' was produced with a budget of $3,000 and it first premiered at the

in 2006.

Reception

Dennis Schwartz gave the film a B rating and wrote, "The actors were allowed to ad lib, and the result is that the characters talk like real people, it's keenly observant about social issues and offers a flippant comical look at relationships for the social media set." Phil Bacharach of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

wrote, "''LOL'' might be undermined by its overly relaxed aesthetic, but it absolutely nails how improved tools of communication don't translate into improved communication." Scott Weinberg, in an eFilmCritic review wrote, "Stocked with low-key and entirely believable characters and a sly (but not nasty) sense of derision towards the modern tools that keep us apart, ''LOL'' is, by my estimation, a solid step up from the director's first flick, and I feel pretty confident that the guy has something even better lined up for his next outing."

Home media

The film was released on DVD by Benten Films, in Dolby Digital 2.0 and full-frame 1.33:1, with liner notes from

GreenCine Daily GreenCine Daily was a film and film criticism news site operated by the defunct video rental service GreenCine. The site was originally edited by David Hudson, who developed a format that curated links to articles, reviews, interviews and pod ...

editor David Hudson. The DVD has two commentaries as special features, with one that features the filmmakers and another one that has to do with the acting. Podcasts by Bewersdorf, the complete "Noisehead" videos, a casting interview of Tipper Newton, a short video titled ''Hissy Fits'', a slideshow of the film's artwork, and music performances round out the rest of the special features.

References

External links

* * {{Joe Swanberg American independent films 2006 films Films directed by Joe Swanberg Mumblecore films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films