Harmony and Me

Represents much of what is wonderful and fresh about the recent wave of ultra-low-budget American independent filmmaking.

Austin, Texas, has never looked more unlovely, and its residents more clueless, than in Harmony and Me, a funny, wry mumblecore comedy by Bob Byington.

In a flat, dry affect, the movie sings the breakup blues.

Despite the film's sketchy aesthetic and barely animate lead, its tone is carefully contrived: I'll wager no one in your circle is as dryly funny or spontaneously surreal as Harmony's nonsupport group.

Harmony is a finely tuned comedy, complete with precisely scripted jokes and comic set pieces that swerve toward the playfully perverse.

Slight, indifferently shot, and entirely lacking in ballast, Harmony and Me's sole justification for being is that it's consistently very funny.

This bagatelle from Bob Byington is Greenberg lite, or maybe an edgier The Office, or softcore mumblecore.

A great new director with a great and laid back saga that will be too laid back for some but well worth the watching.

Bob Byington's "Harmony and Me" is an indie gem that isn't at all what it appears to be at first glance.

It may be true that every generation deserves its droll slacker comedy. But every five years?