In the Cinematheque: Shut Up, Little Man

Shut Up, Little Man is a fascinating look by director Matthew Bates at the importance of audio in pre-Internet American culture, but more importantly, it reveals the interest in the lives of others that is so instinctive to us. 

It starts off simply: In the 1980s, two young men leave their Wisconsin town for San Francisco after graduation. They find themselves in a less-than-desirable apartment with neighbors who quarrel late into the night. From the first time the boys hear the neighbors arguing, it is clear that they are two very different men. One is a homophobe and the other is an openly gay man.  To ease their frustration, the boys record their neighbors’ arguments and soon find that they are, in fact, quite humorous.

Although the film focuses mostly on the spread of the tapes in a time before Youtube, Vimeo and the Internet, it also shows the duality of the lives of the neighbors in Apartment 3. Years after first hearing their arguments, the boys find out more about the two unlikely boarders, which seems to provide a background into their situation.

Shut Up, Little Man does a fantastic job at making its audience laugh as well as revealing the depth of human relationships. Upon leaving the film, it’s hard not to wonder how many things we inadvertently hear on a daily basis that are both funny and telling. How many times have you been in the store and heard someone talking on the phone and wondered who was on the other side of the conversation? 

            Shut Up, Little Man runs at the Facets Cinematheque through this Thursday, October 20.                           --Brittany Jones