Friday 2/24: Silver Bullets @ Cinematheque

Joe Swanberg's Silver Bullets is playing at the Cinematheque this Friday evening, followed by a Q&A with Swanberg afterwards.  Swanberg, undoubtedly the most prolific mumblecore film director of all time, will be there to answer all of your questions.  This is only one of the four films that he wrote and directed in 2011, which reminds me of the unbelievable filmic output of Fassbinder, though that's as close a comparison between the two that I would ever make.

Silver Bullets appears to be a low-budget exercise in navel-gazing: it's about a mumblecore film director (played by Swanberg) and an indie horror film director (played by Ti West, who actually directed the indie horror film The Innkeepers which was screened at the Cinematheque last weekend!).  Swanberg's onscreen girlfriend gets cast by West to be in his new werewolf film, so Swanberg casts his girlfriend's best friend to play his girlfriend in his autobiographical mumblecore film.  Presumably, shenanigans ensue.  Did you follow that?  While most films in this genre tend to be rather meta by nature—especially Swanberg's films—Silver Bullets appears to be the most self-consciously self-referential mumblecore film to date.

Friday, February 24th.  4070 Vilas Hall.  821 University Avenue.  7pm.  Free.

Trailer and interview after the jump.