It’s unmistakable that the DIY champions of the mumblecore movement, Mark and Jay Duplass, have built something of an empire. To hear Mark Duplass tell it, he’d say the body of work he and Jay formed came as a result of a failure to become the Coen Brothers, but if you let nearly anyone else take a crack at explaining their success, the results are often far more flattering. The duo have been in the business for over a decade, and during that time have built a body of work defined by its reliable quality, unmistakable aesthetic consistency, and some of the most honest and human sensibilities indie film has to offer.  

Coming up alongside other indie juggernauts like Joe Swanberg and Andrew Bujalski, the Duplass Brothers have created a small but undeniably personal group of films, ranging from the intensely commercial to the rebelliously DIY. Filmmakers since Jay could manage to hoist a camera on his shoulders, the two have now formed a production company of their own (named, fittingly, Duplass Brothers Productions) responsible for films like Tangerine and The Overnight. But despite their intensely busy production schedule, the Duplass brothers have still found time for TV with HBO’s Togetherness, now in its second season.

As the series unfolds (the second season premiered this Sunday), we thought we would take a look at the brothers’ writer/director efforts, from their first trip to Sundance in 2006 to their recent mature television work. In honor of the second season of Togetherness, and whatever else they’ve got up their sleeves next, we’ve got all of the Duplass Brothers’ writer/director efforts, ranked from worst to best, for your viewing pleasure. (Note: this only applies to their collaborations as writers/directors, not just producers, and also excluding their solo acting gigs like Transparent and The League). Let’s get going.

6. The Do-Deca Pentathlon (2012)

Returning to their lo-fi roots after their commercial dalliances Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home the years prior, The Do-Deca Pentathlon is a family drama predicated on an intense competition between two brothers borne out of years of frustration and sibling rivalry. But the film, which stands as the Duplass’ most recent cinematic outing, feels more like a downgrade than a self-assured return to their original scale. Appearing as both a well-intentioned apology for the brother’s turn to the commercial, as well as a tribute to their early films, The Do-Deca Pentathlon fails to transcend beyond its lovely but disjointed collection of moments. The always reliable Steve Zissis is impressively funny, and the film’s final scenes feel remarkably touching, but it’s hard not to feel as though The Do-Deca Pentathlon might have run better as one zippy episode of Togetherness.  

5. Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)

The second of the Duplass brothers’ commercial trilogy, Jeff, Who Lives at Home takes a singularly intimate approach to the common vagrancies of life, centering around Jason Segel as a predictably charming Signs-obsessed slacker. Still living in his mother’s (Susan Sarandon) basement despite his age, the titular Jeff is drawn out of the house by a wrong number he mistakes for a twist of fate, before running into his joylessly type-A brother (Ed Helms). As is the usual, the film’s concept is low, and in the end exploits the filmmakers’ characteristic ambivalent optimism, but the film’s staging can feel unfortunately overwrought, poking holes in their usually reliable authenticity.

4. Baghead (2008)

Conceived after a casual on-set conversation during the making of their debut, Jay and Mark followed up The Puffy Chair with a film that remains an outlier in their overwhelmingly understated filmography. Baghead returns to the same stripped down, handheld aesthetic of their first film, but ditches its exercises in realism for a strange and slightly trippy pseudo-horror film, following a quartet of Hollywood hopefuls (including a very young Greta Gerwig) as their attempt at a creative weekend devolves into paranoia and increasing self absorption. On one end, the film is a smart and current send-up of indie film detractors, purposefully exposing the difficulty of DIY filmmaking, but on the other, the film’s tone is hard to pin down, making Baghead’s final reveal feel a bit deflating. Because of this, it received generally milquetoast reviews at the time of its release, but watching Baghead now, its positions on still-current concerns like fame, privacy and the lines between fiction and reality make the off-kilter thriller feel surprisingly cutting edge even today.

3. Togetherness (2015 - ?)

Allison has already penned a pointed breakdown of the second season here, but it’s safe to say that the Duplass brothers’ ongoing television work ranks as some of their best yet (even if it is only for established Duplass fans). A fitting culmination to the films that came before it, and an apt choice of format considering Jay’s recurring role on Transparent and Mark’s on the long-running The League, Togetherness nonetheless stands as easily the pair’s darkest work yet, and a clear outlet for some of their more nihilistic tendencies. Following a directionless married couple (Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey), orbited by a family friend (frequent collaborator Steve Zissis) and a trainwreck of a close relative (Amanda Peet), Togetherness namely succeeds in its devotion to honesty when it comes to adult relationships, and the inherent sadness in the compromises of aging. The sharp-edged sensibilities of the show certainly can cut, often dullingly, into the viewer’s consciousness, but what Mark calls a “no concept” show still carries some of the most far-reaching insights the Duplass brothers have ever indulged in, even if that means losing some of their idiosyncratic fun.

2. The Puffy Chair (2005)

There’s no getting away from The Puffy Chair’s historical importance, and while Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha is often identified as the first of the mumblecore movement -- defined by its realistic, improvisational dialog and low budgets -- The Puffy Chair was the one greeted with enough press and excitement to cross over into the mainstream. A deceptively simple film that helped to incubate what would become Duplassian cinematic trademarks that exist to this day, The Puffy Chair first poses as a festival ‘road movie’ staple before devolving into a hellish exploration of relationships and faux-maturity. And it seems a fitting companion to the decade-later Togetherness (despite the film’s ending, it feels easy to imagine Lynskey and Duplass as older versions of the film’s central characters), but where Togetherness’ crushing sense of reality can eventually wear on the viewer, The Puffy Chair delivers enough consistent humor to keep the film buoyant.

1. Cyrus (2010)

Though it seems almost antithetical that one of the pair’s most effective works is one whose aesthetic (and star-studded cast) reflects the most commercial sensibilities, it’s nearly impossible to discount the dopey charm of Cyrus. A low-key jaunt through a budding relationship, the film offers Duplass filmic traditions at what might be their very best, presenting a collection of small wonders that culminate in surprisingly poetic truths, arriving so subtly as to allow you to feel as though you discovered them all on your own. And while Cyrus has got some of the gloss of a studio-backed feature, the film’s DIY roots are easily given away by Jay’s quick zoom cinematography and the brothers’ charitable humanity. Featuring charm aplenty from Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, Catherine Keener and Jonah Hill as the titular Cyrus, it’s cringe comedy at its most sentimental, and personal catharsis at its most hilarious.