Non-professional actors Tilly and Maggie Hatcher are the twin leads of "Beeswax." In real life, Tilly is a teacher and Maggie an ER doctor.
Although it’s languid even compared to the unhurried pace of most Mumblecore offerings, Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski’s latest comedy of manners, is served well by its studied progression.
Twin sisters Lauren (Maggie Hatcher) and Jeannie (Tilly Hatcher) share an Austin apartment and the same cheekbones but not similar temperaments. Lauren is floating aimlessly but cheerfully enough through life, while Jeannie, who is paralyzed from the waist down, tools around anxiously in her wheelchair, intensely managing the thrift shop she co-owns. Lauren is trying to decide if she wants to teach in Kenya, while Jeannie waits for her difficult business partner to file a lawsuit against her. To help her prepare, she invites former boyfriend and current law student Merrill (Alex Karpovsky) back into her life–and maybe back into her heart.
The actors are non-professionals and even their occasional verbal stumbles serve the picture well. No one ever really hollers in a Bujalski film, including these repressed folks. They live in a world where people bite their tongues, keep the peace and don’t throw tantrums, let along a punch. The writer-director may eventually do his best work when he allows his characters to lose control and break something valuable. But until then, we have finely observed films like Beeswax.
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