Meanwhile

Harlley Getting Back to Basics

     

I started watching a lot of videos in the early 90s, and Hal Hartley provided some of the most awesome, mind-blowing experiences of those days with, first of all, as it went for me, "Simple Men" and then, amazingly, "Trust". I also found copies of "Surviving Desire" and "The Unbelievable Truth" which both were very much of the same ilk: wonderful, quirky, highly mannered but extremely interesting human dramas. I looked forward to more Hartley and sought his work out through the years, but it just got so bizarre and inhuman that I couldn't relate. "Flirt", "Henry Fool", "No Such Thing", "Fay Grimm": this stuff was all very disappointing in the end. Somewhat interesting, just because original filmmakers are always doing interesting things with the camera, but ultimately over the top tormented/kinky. Anyway, when I noticed that iTunes had a new pic of Hartley's, I jumped at the opportunity to give him another chance and - lo and behold - I am happy to report that, for my money, Hartley is pretty much back. The ending is a little over the top. He throws something in there that was not really necessary in my opinion, but for the most part we are finally seeing Hartley again working with a story that is this side of the completely bizarre. We've got a uniquely un-lust obsessed person with a lot of good stuff on his mind. Omg, he's not an egomaniac! This film shows me that directors need reasonable, believable scripts upon which to work their cinematic magic. What film is really about in the end, for me, is spaces, places, faces and light. Rhythm and blues. The Dance. Please Hal Hartley: more of the same. Oh, and also, no great writer that your main character here would really like a lot, could possibly be so paralyzed by creative cowardice as the one you've put in the show. Minor quibbles tho.