15, 85 mins

Made on a minuscule budget by a cast and crew of friends and acquaintances of the director, Andrew Bujalski, Funny Ha Ha is a real treat. It captures perfectly that agonising moment when young people are plunged into adulthood. Like its central character, Marnie (the delightful Kate Dollenmayer), a recent college graduate, the picture has a nervy intelligence and an awkward appeal.

Marnie has an unrequited crush on a friend who decides to let her down in an unbearably gauche phone conversation. Dumped before she had even had a chance at a relationship, Marnie turns her attention to a programmme of self-improvement and a couple of doomed dates with her former workmate, Mitchell (Bujalski).

Refreshingly unpolished, the film uses pained silences like punctuation. The humour is never forced and the dialogue is completely persuasive. Andrew Bujalski is one of the most original film-makers of his generation.

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