Dartboard dramadies

I’ll get to the New Year’s update sooner or later, but right now I wanted to get this idea down and on the interweb.  I have thought up a name for a genre of movies that has started popping up with more and more frequency in the last couple years.  I call them ‘dartboard dramadies.’  These are drama-comedies in which the characters and plot events seem to be decided via dartboard.  I’m not saying that these movies are bad, in fact I have enjoyed watching most of them, I’m just wondering at the trend.  Perhaps people wish to see realistic movies with random characters who have to solve mostly everyday and random problems in their lives.  The following list (which shall be updated as I think of more or see more in the theaters) are examples:

1) Little Miss Sunshine

2) Nepoleon Dynomite

3) Darjeeling Limited

4) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

5) The Royal Tenenbaums

6) Dan in Real Life (I will have to rewatch this again, but I think this movie fits my definition)

7) Superbad (this pushes the definition below abit, but I think it still fits)

Juno (see Superbad)

To be considered a dartboard dramady, a movie has to have several characteristics.  First, it has to have a relatively large cast with no real main star.  Sure, you may pick one character as the title character in which we follow in their nearly ordinary life but that does not  mean you have to stick with them in every shot and storyline. Each character has to have some strange quirk or fetish or personality trait that strays abit from the norm and has to have almost nothing to do with moving the story forward.  You have to have many stories that intertwine, each character must have a rich and detailed background which you may explore in the course of the movie, but not always.  There is almost never a main goal for the movie and the denouement will be subtle and nearly unremarkable (this is not nearly as important as the characters).  Usually in these movies there are events which are usually unrelated and often random and not always tied up by the end of the movie.  Often these movies leave you feeling like you wasted your time but still enjoyed it nonetheless.  If you are a person who has to have substance to your films, an obvious beginning, middle, rising action, and resolution, you will more than likely hate these types of movies.  If you are like me and enjoy movies more for the colorful characters, odd almost random plots, and acting you may still take something from this style.  Of most of the films you will see, these often feel the most real, even though strange things and characters abound.  I cannot see all movies, so if anyone reads this and has some to add, please don’t hesitate to post.