New film in "mumblecore" tradition features wheelchair-using actress

From the Morristown Green column in the The Star-Ledger in N.J, The film will be screened at the BAMcinemaFEST in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sunday June 21.

Beeswax is not for everyone. The indie melodrama, screened June 10 at the New York Film Critics series in Morristown, N.J. meanders without much of a plot, loosely revolving around the lives of self-absorbed, 20-something twin sisters.

But film fans will find it noteworthy for a few reasons. It's the third feature by Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation), a 32-year-old Harvard-trained director who coined the term "mumblecore" to describe this sort of low-budget, slice-of-life look at his generation.

Film critic Glenn Kenny called the absence of a musical soundtrack in Beeswax a refreshing change from movies that use pop music to tell viewers what to think and when. (Glenn blames Martin Scorsese's 1973 Mean Streets for introducing the Greatest Hits formula to cinema.)

Beeswax has a natural, unscripted feel, even though producer Ethan Vogt insisted there was a detailed script. Andrew Bujalski has a keen eye for talent, recruiting friends who are not professional actors.

His stars are the dimpled, real-life twins Tilly and Maggie Hatcher. They are not conventional Hollywood beauties, but the camera loves them and it's particularly hard to take one's eyes off Tilly (pictured).

Her character, Jeannie, runs a second-hand clothing store and clashes with the co-owner.

The fact that Jeannie gets around in a wheelchair is just that--a fact, and nothing more. Off-screen, Tilly has been hobbled since age 13 by a spinal tumor. There is no discussion of her disability in the film, however. No pity, no pathos, no saccharine back story, no pun intended.

She is treated as a person who simply navigates the world from a sitting position, someone with all the appetites, ambitions and foibles of vertical people. The filmmaker does not trumpet this. So we will. Bravo, Mr. Bujalski.