The mumblecore film movement exploded nearly a decade ago, breathing fresh air into the independent film world with its lo-fi aesthetic, often-improvised acting and narratives exploring the lives and loves of post-collegiate twenty-somethings. Mumblecore films, the label a joke that stuck much to the annoyance of the filmmaking collective, look simple and amateurish at first glance. But the films are deceptively complex, using their low budgets to their advantage to create intimate portrayals of life amongst the lost that have a documentary-like realism.

The characters talk and act like everyday folks. The events, everything from group gatherings and private conversations to explicit sex, are presented with an unassuming matter-of-factness. In a nutshell, mumblecore films feel like real life.

Along with Andrew Bujalski, Lynn Shelton, Mark and Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz and others, Chicagoan Joe Swanberg, a Southern Illinois University at Carbondale grad, is one of mumblecore’s leading figures. Swanberg’s acclaimed films Funny Ha Ha, LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends and Alexander the Last have helped define the collective’s style. His latest, Uncle Kent, opening Friday, April 29 at the Gene Siskel Film Center for a week-long run, finds the filmmaker mining a familiar milieu, but jumping ahead to explore life at the end of the long parade of youth. It’s one of his best films.

Swanberg regular Kent Osborne, who co-wrote the film along with Swanberg, stars as Kent. Kent has just turned 40. An animator for a kids’ cartoon, he lives alone in the Hollywood hills with his cat, spending most of his days and nights working, smoking pot, worrying about his age and perusing the online webcam chat site, Chatroulette. His isolated existence is thrown for a loop, though, when Kate (Jennifer Prediger), a friend met on Chatroulette, comes to visit for a long weekend. Kate has a boyfriend, but the prospect of a fling with the attractive, bespectacled journalist gives Kent hope for a real-life connection.

They spend their time together dancing around each other — talking about sex and masturbation, flirting like a new couple, going to a party — but never hooking-up. An awkward, Craigslist-arranged ménage-a-trois with another woman only complicates the dynamic. They soon find that an online relationship is much easier than one conducted in reality where life gets in the way.

Filmed using hand-held digital cameras and other personal recording devices, Uncle Kent feels privileged, as if exposing private moments meant to be seen only by those involved. It perfectly captures the notion of a life lived online, where voyeuristically and superficially observing the lives of others replaces human contact. The cameras used by Kent, Kate and others throughout the film act both as shields against reality and as nonjudgmental confidantes, as well. Personal questions are easier asked from behind the camera’s eye, and confidences, inhibitions and clothes are easier dropped before its lens.

Osborne delivers a wonderful performance as the man-child Kent. He’s the encapsulation of characters from mumblecore’s earlier films, but grown up. He’s found his place in the world, but, though comfortable, it’s lonely. Attempts to bump solitary complacency for a so-called adult life filled with adult relationships prove harder than imagined — scenarios that are all too common in an age where, for many, connections with the outside world come via the click of the mouse rather than face-to-face contact.