‘I Am Not A Hipster’ Review

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Destin Cretton’s I Am Not a Hipster debuted one year ago at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  Over the past twelve months, it has made the rounds at various festivals until now when it has finally become available OnDemand and through a limited theatrical release.  I am glad to have it is reaching a bigger audience, including this audience of one, because it is a wonderfully drawn character study of one young man’s search for meaning in music.  Surely, this film is the definition of an “indie” movie in that it was made for no money, has no big-name stars, and presents subject matter we would rarely if ever see in a “mainstream” or “studio” picture and presents it in such a way that highlights the very independence of those involved in making the movie. 

Hipster tells the story of Brook (Dominic Bogart), a talented and moderately-successful singer-songwriter in San Diego’s indie rock scene during the mid-2000s.  The film opens with him sharing a stage at the Casbah with two other local musicians, but halfway through his first song, he exits to vomit in the restroom due to what he insists is one-too-many drinks.  We discover early on why the term “hipster” is part of the title; Brook is a vegan, an indie rocker, a pot-smoker, and a bicycle rider.  Apparently, that is what a “hipster” is in 2004 San Diego; but we also get a since Brook’s mother (more about her below) was a “hippie.”

The film then cuts to one week earlier when we see Brook doing a small radio interview with Bradley (Brad William Henke) set up by his so-called manager and best friend, indie pop artist Clarke (Alvaro Orlando).  The interview is roughly ten minutes, but it is ten of the best minutes of the film because it is so real, honest, uncomfortable, and simultaneously difficult to watch and yet impossible not to.  The interview is almost unintentionally revealing and we learn that while Brook was born in rural Ohio, his mother was from San Diego – his mother who died two years ago, and whose death apparently led to Brook’s pilgrimage from Ohio to California and is an event he has never gotten over.  But these are more than just facts raised by the interview; they provide a glimpse into Brook’s soul, his music, his grief, his sensitivity, his creativity, and his life.  Everything that follows does so in the shadow of these extraordinary ten minutes.

As Brook prepares to headline at the Casbah in several days, he is surprised by his three sisters – Joy (Tammy Minoff), Spring (Lauren Coleman), and Merrily (Kandis Erickson) – and his father who have come to San Diego to spread his mother’s ashes.  Now we see Brook in a different light – the light he reflects when surrounded by his sister’s luminescence.  When compared to his sisters, Brook seems to be the child who has yet to get over his mother’s death.  If the interview was illuminating, his sisters’ comments to him and about him are even moreso.  Also illuminating are his interactions with Clarke who adores Brook, and there’s much to suggest that Brook likes Clarke as well, he simply shows it in a different way.  For example, at Clarke’s tiny art show, Brook tells him that what Clarke does is not art – he is a mere creator of what Brook can only think to call “fluffy shit.”  Brook may be right, but what kind of friend is he?  The kind who is too honest to lie to Clarke’s face, or the kind who cannot be a true friend and thus further pushes Clarke away by saying intentionally harmful things (don’t worry, they make up).

Part of Brook’s transformation is due to the interview, his sisters, his relationship with Clarke, and finally how he comes to terms with his father.  After two years of working on his music and loving and losing a girl, we see him with his family on a beach spreading his mother’s ashes in a serene and serendipitous.