Joe Swanberg may be best known as the lo-fi filmmaker responsible for such features as Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends and, most recently, Alexander the Last. But, since 2006, he’s also been directing and c0-starring in IFC.com’s addictive web series, Young American Bodies, which chronicles the romantic lives of a group of 20-something friends in Chicago.
While the show’s subject matter — marriage, infidelity, long-distance relationships — doesn’t differ greatly from what we’re used to seeing in more mainstream sex comedies, its style is pure Swanberg: spontaneous, vérité and, above all, authentic. In fact, those of us who happen to be in our 20s may find the resemblance between YAB and our own lives uncanny. And that’s no accident. As Swanberg says, “If we don’t represent ourselves in the media, no one else is going to.” Oh, and did we mention there’s full-frontal nudity, too?
