What Mark Duplass Can’t Live Without

I get completely overwhelmed sifting through the thrift shop of Netflix and can’t pick anything to watch. I’m old enough to remember, in the late ’80s, just flipping to HBO and hopping into a movie in the middle, and just watching it. Nobody does that anymore, but it’s possible with the Criterion Channel. I’ll open the app, and it’ll be 43 minutes intoSeven Samurai,and I’ll just pop in for a bit. I love doing that because it feels curated for me. I also like the short films for times when I’m like, “I have nine minutes in between these two interviews, and here’s this Hal Hartley short that I’ve never seen before.”

One of my brother’s best friends talks a lot about the concept of “cheap fun,” like how a delicious 80-cent taco tastes even better because it’s cheap. Bicycle playing cards are a perfect example of this. Card games are big connector in my family across generations. The first time I met my wife’s family, there were 20 people in the house being loud and chaotic, and this was my way to fit in. Things slow down when you settle into a card game; you get to know everyone’s unique pacing, and you form a connection. I’ve seen it with my own children as well. There are times when they don’t really want to talk about their day, but if you get going on a card game, it puts the focus somewhere else, and then all of a sudden the conversation starts to drift out of it. We buy two-packs because we play a game called Shitter — which is actually calledShithead, but we call it “Shitter” — that’s more exciting with two decks if you’re playing with four people. And I always bring them when traveling so we can play wherever.

I stopped using Zoom for meetings about a year into the pandemic because I realized I could get an extra 10,000 steps per day if I just took them as calls while walking around the neighborhood. The AirPods Pro are critical for that. I like the older 2s because they let me be less angry with my children when they borrow them and lose one at school — it’s only half the cost to replace them, unlike the newer ones. And I like that they have different-size tips that help them stay in my ears. I gave my mom the original one-size-fits-all AirPods, but she would just complain they were too big for her ears. But these newer ones with the smaller tips changed her life.

Now that I’m 48, I need the Kindle’s adjustable font size to read because of what’s happening with my eyes. Also, my wife falls asleep before I do, and rather than huddle by dim lamp light that isn’t bright enough to read by, I use the Kindle, and it’s a marriage saver. I basically only use it for reading borrowed library books withLibby. We live in a world where we can get anything we want whenever we want it, but I don’t allow myself that for books. If I want to read a book, I have to place a hold and wait until it’s available, just like back in 1978. And I always have something to read because any time I see someone I know on the street, I ask them, “What’s your favorite book you’ve read recently?” I’ll throw the answer in the Libby app and forget about it. Then I get notifications throughout the year, “Oh my God! That book that Michael recommended to me nine weeks ago on the subway is here!” And I’ll appreciate that book so much more than just spending $12.99 on it on Kindle and getting my instant gratification. Sometimes I don’t finish it in the two-week window, but I’ll let you in on a secret: If you turn on airplane mode and disconnect from Wi-Fi, the loan won’t be returned until you turn it back off again.

Throughout my late teens and my early 20s, I was a really earnest folk singer–songwriter, living, touring, and recording out of my van, which is the same indie approach I still take to filmmaking. But eventually, I developed too many repetitive-stress injuries in my arms to keep playing the big dreadnought guitars that I loved. Then, about six years ago, my youngest daughter wanted to play guitar, so we found something that fit her small hands. One day, I picked it up and realized,Oh, I can play this without any discomfort.So I’ve completely co-opted this guitar from my daughter. It tethers me to that 15-year-old singer-songwriter inside me. Which is important because there’s this theory that singing loudly is a really good mental-health exercise due to how it vibrates your throat. And when I first got into filmmaking, I noticed that when I stopped playing music to make a movie, I would get depressed. Looking back, I think it was because the singing was keeping my mood afloat.

There was a way I used to be — before I had children and a mortgage and a marriage and a company and all of these responsibilities. And the only way I can describe that is with the word “fuggitall,” as in, “fuck it all.” I’m actually happier now because these responsibilities have actually brought me greater peace and joy than harm. But when I put these sunglasses on, I achieve the essence of “fuggitall” inside of my very non-“fuggitall” life. It’s like being back at Jazzfest in my Tevas and my cargo shorts, dancing like an idiot to Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. It’s almost like a spiritual connection, especially since I didn’t even buy them. Goodr just sent them to me because they saw me wearing sunglasses in a picture. They probably sent me the pink ones because they weren’t selling well, but when I put them on, it was like wearing a superhero cape.

I have been taking 20 milligrams of Celexa for almost 20 years. And of all the necessary items in my life, this is the one that I truly cannot live without. I was initially very nervous to even consider SSRIs, but I had a nervous breakdown afterThe Puffy Chaircame out in 2005. This was after years of white-knuckling it and trying everything I could — therapy, exercise, meditation, the right diet. I was working my ass off, and I was still only 40 percent of my way to a somewhat balanced life. So I saw a psychiatrist and tried Zoloft, and that wasn’t for me. But about 20 days into Celexa, I experienced the happiest and the saddest day of my life. I was so happy that the cloud had lifted, and I was like,Oh, wait, you don’t have to be constantly working not to want to kill yourself?But it was also sad because I thought,God, if someone had brought these to me earlier, it would’ve been so nice.Although, to be honest, if my engine hadn’t been running the way it was when I was unmedicated, I might not have driven myself up that mountain with the same frenetic energy, which probably helped at the time. But I have no desire to go back there now.

I used to make fun ofmy brother Jayfor all the time he spent alone in the outdoors, but he lovingly and gently was like, “Yep, you keep joking, but you’ll be here soon.” And now I am. And I’m using his hand-me-down Osprey pack. Which he was glad to give me since, as any ultralight backpacker knows, anytime you can replace an item that weighs 0.5 ounces with a 0.4-ounce version, you just do it. And then you hand that to someone else. I have so many repetitive-stress injuries on my upper body from my musician days that I can’t carry any weight on my shoulders, but this one is fully adjustable so that 90 percent of the load ends up on my hips, which is perfect, because I’m like a 25-year-old marathon runner from the hips down. I also like that it’s big enough to carry a big bear canister so I don’t have to hang up my food every night to prevent critters from getting to it.

It’s all about cutting weight when you’re doing long-backpacking because you’ve got to carry everything in and out on your shoulders. This backpacking tent is incredibly light. They’ve designed it so that the hiking poles you’re using anyway double as the poles that hold up the tent. I like that it’s a one-person tent because, for my mental health, it’s not just about getting into nature and ejecting from everything, it is making sure that I do it alone. It puts me in touch with myself as an 8- or 9-year-old in bed alone with my thoughts. For some people, that can be a scary and intimidating thing, but as a husband, dad of two girls, dog dad of three rescues, and uncle to the entire independent-film world, there’s just a lot on my shoulders. And when I venture out in my tiny tent, I can let it go for a bit. Even just 48 hours feels like a huge refuel so I can come back and do what I do.

I also use the Gossamer hiking poles. They’re super light, and the grips are gentle on my hands. I also like the way they sound when they hit the ground. When you’re hiking alone, the littlest things become the biggest things in your world, and for me, that’s the sound of these poles.