I was disappointed by this film when it came out, but last night, on cable, I found it pretty enjoyable. Who knew it was a mid-90s period piece? (music by Pavement, PJ Harvey, etc.) If you are in the right state of mind it is whimsical, yet still, you know, kinda heavy. I always liked Elina Lowensohn. She seems to’ve disappeared.
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Welcome
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.
It seems like a few Hartley films have been making the IFC/Sundance rounds lately … and, man, I don’t dig him! I don’t know what it is — while I love how he imparts that great sense of white working-class life around the city in the 718s and suburbs, everything else about his movies, save for some snappy dialogue, just seems forced and contrived to me. The stories are just too nutty. I know he knows it, too, but that doesn’t make watching his movies any easier.
The one great scene in this movie was the protagonist sitting on a park bench with a school kid comparing/contrasting the meaning of Homer’s Odyssey to a skin mag. If his whole movies maintained that level of quirkiness and insight, I’d much prefer that to the half-baked melodrama aspects of his writing.
Too bad you missed the party. The food, Jordan, the food! You missed that too. Pigs in blanket – with puff pastry! That was an experiment of mine gone very right.
Remember when they closed down the Angelika to film a scene for Amateur? I remember we talked about it. And then we were all like ooh, can’t wait to see it and it was disappointingly short. We sat in Angelika talking about this. You pointed this out emphatically in your usual way. Or was that me?