meaning as aesthetic

I was at Blockbuster earlier after work. Had 2 online DVDs to trade-in. My plan was swoop an Asian horror (either A Tale of Two Sisters, The Eye or One Missed Call) and something American lite. None of the above were available so I settled for Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer. Couldn't decide on the 2nd flick, scanned the new release section twice over. Wayfaring through the weak Blockbuster drama section, I hear "Hannah Takes the Stairs now available exclusively at Blockbuster"... Woody Allen pops into my mind, but then it circles back to me. Hannah Takes the Stairs, the trailer had promise, and I remember being irked that Owen Gleiberman reduced it to "mumblecore" in his review (prefer Schwarzbaum). I added Greta Gerwig as a MySpace friend solely on the trailer's merits... somewhat off-tangent, but peep the trailer for Quiet City. Anyway, I scooped it and was on my way with Ichi the Killer and Hannah Takes the Stairs... which nutshells me quite simply.

Just finished Hannah Takes the Stairs. Watched it with my roommate and others. I was watching, they were multi-tasking. Essentially, the room's permeating sentiment was that it was dull and mediocre. And really, I understand their point of perspective, but this stylistic discontent with Hannah harps at a broader cultural detachment that I'm wrestling to find compromise with: meaning as aesthetic. As an anecdote, I'll just mention they were fresh off a mini-One Tree Hill marathon before I put on Hannah so... Getting slightly irritated with some of the subtle guffs I made the comparison between reality-TV like Real World (which I know they watch) and the movie. I understand I'm in the minority, and I also understand that this is problematic, but I'd rather see the average, mundane of people and our existence than the ugliest of people manipulated for entertainment. It signifies our detachment from reality, or maybe just the incongruence between what we expect from movies and what the channel truly has to give.

Contextually, these docu-feels are closest to French New Wave cinema, which is complimentary, but also, may be Hannah and the body of these grassroot docu-feels' (or mumblecore as Gleiberman suggests) fundamental creative arrest. In meaning as aesthetic, it seems to me that the compromise is music, the revelations that came with the MTV music video. Stimulating the organic with moderated contrivance. Finding that balance between rousing the artwork with musical soul and cheapening into a soulless 90 min. music video. Despite its shortcomings, in the romantic transition, Hannah Takes the Stairs is a noble work, and glimpses into our truth: that movie magic is us.