The main—and as far as I can see, about the only—reasons you might want to rush out and see Baghead this week would be if you are a film geek (a term I do not intend pejoratively) eager to remain current with the mumblecore genre. Mumblecore refers to low-budget movies made by a handful of young filmmakers about characters like themselves, who not so long ago were called slackers. These people tend to be white, middle class, college educated to no specific end, vaguely artistic, and hugely self-involved. (J. Hoberman sums up the genre as equal parts The Real World, Seinfeld, and The Blair Witch Project.) Baghead is by the Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, whose The Puffy Chair played in Buffalo a few years ago. I seem to recall that I liked it, but I can’t otherwise remember anything about it, which may not be beside the point. Anyway, Baghead is about four people in a cabin in the woods. All are actors with the kind of time on their hands that comes from not having any work. Inspired by the screening of a no-budget movie made by a friend, they have come here to hole up for a weekend and write a script that they can appear in. For a while it looks like this will be an exploration of the sexual tensions among the two couples—Matt (Ross Partridge) and Catherine (Elise Muller), who have been together for 11 years but don’t think anything of it, and Chad (Steve Zissis) and Michelle (Greta Gerwig), who are split 50-50 opinion-wise as to whether they are going to move past the friendship stage. Then it starts to turn into a horror movie: Are they being stalked by a masked menace in the woods? Suspense ensues, but only as to where the hell this is all going. Baghead is short enough to be over before it wears out its welcome. I can’t say for sure whether a lot of the dialogue was improvised, though it has the aimless quality of actors making up their speeches on the spot. If the Duplasses are working with a sense of irony, it’s one to subtle for this viewer.

—m. faust