Best Of 2009, Guest Editors: Mac McCaughan On “Wendy And Lucy”

As 2009 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors. Today’s entry is from April 21. Here, Merge Records co-owner and Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan writes about Wendy And Lucy, one of the few movies that actually made us cry.

Outdated reference point or not, the anti-apathy sentiment on Superchunk‘s sophomore single “Slack Motherfucker” still seems characteristic of Mac McCaughan 20 years after he wrote it. The recently dormant Superchunk is moving again, and McCaughan also fills his time with Portastatic and co-ownership of Merge Records. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, McCaughan is guest editing magnetmagazine.com this week.

McCaughan: A couple years ago, Kelly Reichardt made the film Old Joy (with Will Oldham and Daniel London), and it blew my mind in a very gentle way. Not a lot was happening, but I kept not wanting it to end. When I left the theater, I wanted to: a) watch it again, and b) see her next movie, which she wouldn’t make for another couple years, and it’s Wendy And Lucy, starring Michelle Williams. Reichardt has the discipline to make a movie at the pace of how you wish your life moved, and after one movie, she had her own genre. So after two movies, is it an oeuvre? Or is it the other way around? Video after the jump.