There is something truly irreducible about it. You can also see her put on this mode as a guest in dozens of talk shows and interviews. The role of April Ludgate was, in fact, created specifically for Aubrey Plaza, after the show-runners had met her and experienced her doing her Aubrey Plaza thing, which they then imported directly into the Parks & Rec character.

Though deeply suspicious of normal expressions of emotion (she hates hugging), and generally disruptive of others’ attempts at such expressions, somehow she manages to almost always be right on target at identifying what makes the people around her tick, on a surprisingly deep level.Īubrey Plaza as April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation Aubrey Plaza’s character, April Ludgate, is a young, deadpan conceptual trouble-maker, always saying exactly the right thing to defy any expectations other people may have for what should be coming out of her mouth in any given moment. Parks & Rec exhibits a metamodern sensibility in its exploration of how a group of diversely quirky oddballs can cohere into a larger social whole that functions with purpose and, by drawing on their very human flaws and foibles, often effectively. Her breakthrough role was on television’s Parks and Recreation. Turns out it’s a great film, a great vehicle for Aubrey Plaza, and indeed a great example of metamodern story-telling.Īubrey Plaza seems to gravitate towards metamodern projects.

I also understood it to be a horror film of sorts, and a comedy of sorts, the combination of which promised the possibility of a metamodern sensibility. I paid the full $20 to watch the film Black Bear (online) on its release day (December 4, 2020) mostly because I’m a huge fan of lead weirdo, Aubrey Plaza.

April ludgate playing spooky music