Baghead

Basically, this is a movie in which two half-assed couples — barely lit old flames Matt (Ross Partridge) and Catherine (Elise Muller) and more-like-siblings Chad (Steve Zissis) and Michelle (Greta Gerwig) — decide to spend a weekend in a middle-of-nowhere retreat to write the Great American Independent Film. Things go awry, however, when their backwoodsy brainstorming is interrupted by a dude with a paper bag over his head—ah, the makings of your conventional horror pic (yawn). Only brothers Jay and Mark Duplass aren't making a horror pic; the movie's about as scary as a shadow puppet. It's better in its first half, when it pokes gentle fun at the film-festival circuit (where Baghead has been stretching its legs since it debuted at Sundance in January).