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mgeorge-4
Reviews
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)
Can't believe what I just read...
According to the above synopsis, this "indie" pic derived from one of the most vivid and persuasive first novels of the last 25 years or so has changed the main characters essential dilemma, which was not choosing between two girls while the romantically self-destructive Cleveland hovered on the edges before bringing things to a head, but figuring out if his close friendship with Cleveland's gay friend Arthur (Art/Arthur, get it?) was sexual attraction or merely bromance. "Jane Bellwether"! Why not call her "Schwing Bothways" or "Girlgirl Akshun"-- they're much more evocative names. What were Peter Sarsgaard and Mena Suvari thinking?
Festival in Cannes (2001)
No "Deja Vu" but still a delight
As a long-time fan of Henry Jaglom, I'd have to put Festival in Cannes slightly behind his last couple of films, the wonderful "Deja Vu" and "Last Summer in the Hamptons." His work is definitely not to everyone's taste -- none of his characters is free of either self-absorption or self-destructiveness -- but those who don't need clear heroes and villains are well-rewarded with psychologically complex and often highly comic portrayals.
This is more in the spirit of "Venice/Venice" and his earlier, more confessional films with the difference being that Henry's not onscreen. Still, his longtime collaborator Zack Norman gives his best performance ever, Anouk Aimee and Maximilian Schell fully embody both the mystery and deluded romanticism they're meant to evoke and a fine array of new faces (especially Alex Craig Mann and the two female writer/producers) step up to Jaglom's "process" and execute it more seamlessly than ever before. Henry's somewhat distracting habit of arhythmic cross-cutting within dialogue scenes has been almost completely cured -- "Festival" has gorgeous long takes that allow the scenes to completely develop their internal tensions. The production values are also the best ever for one of his films; he and his crew really conveyed the spirit of a festival that is really a market.
My main quibble is that his ending is not as satisfying as those of his last films; it, too, harks back to the looser wrap-ups of his earlier work -- even a bit more certainty about the resolution of a couple of the storylines would have helped this feel a little grander in conception.