Rating: 
Summary: Great, strange, surreal
Review: I love it
Rating:
Summary: An amateur rewiew
Review: I was channel-surfing when I landed on IFC showing a "comedy-drama" called Amateur. It was nearly an hour in, and there was this scene of these two geeky accountant types arguing about the merits of various cell-phones while using the wires from a floorlamp to electrocute a Christopher Lloyd look-alike. High-concept, but decidedly "B", I thought. But as the movie progressed, I began to notice the deliberation that led to the quirky stagger of the film. The style itself was saying things that the action couldn't begin to convey. This was high art! And it was funny in an intentionally-unintentional way.
The plot, about an ex-nun who now writes bad pornography, a porn queen with a grudge, and an ex-pornongrapher with amnesia, each searching for their identity, is interesting, but it doesn't begin to tell of the impressive stylishness of this movie. Amateur sucks you in like Beckett mixed with "letters to Penthouse", and leaves you satisfied on both accounts. If this sounds good to you, you should check it out. It shows on IFC quite frequently. Oh also, this movie turned me into a freak for Elina Lowensohn.
Rating:
Summary: This is one of my all time favorites! Best movie of 1994!
Review: I was first turned on to Hal Hartley's films after viewing Amateur in a film class in college. Afterwards I watched all of his other films, which I enjoyed as well. Unfortunately, none of them are as good as Amateur. It is Hartley's most insightful and thought-provoking film. It made me laugh in a way that most films don't. I kept thinking about the film several days after my initial viewing, which definitely signifies the mark of a great film. Amateur has everything a movie needs. It has a smart screenplay, comedy, tragedy, and is beautifully shot. If you haven't seen it, rent it. You won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Gets better with repeated viewings
Review: Like all Hal Hartley films (I've seen Flirt and Henry Fool, but neither are as good as Amateur), this is a decidedly odd and mannered movie. The first time I saw it, the far-fetched plot and stilted characterizations are a bit unnerving. This is an ambitious project--Hartley explores the fall of man (an event which literally precedes the film) and original sin in the context of an off-kilter Manhattan thriller. There are some hilariously delivered deadpan one-liners (Martin Donovan: "You're a nyphmomanic and you've never had sex? How could that be?" Isabelle Huppert: "I'm choosy.") But the heart of the movie revolves around the title, and how, try as we might, we cannot escape who we are--Hartley seems to suggest that humanity's flaws are indelible, and despite the guises we might adopt, we are only novices. Amateur ranks low on entertainment value (see Air Force One instead), but a great thinking person's film: brainy, sly, somber, and at times (especially the ending), heartbreaking. Hartley's beguiling screenplay unravels its original insights upon repeated viewings, and it makes the effort worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: Restraint wrings our emotion. Jumping up and down can express joy, but a perfect ballet segment will convey ecstasy so complete the dance pratically creates it. Subtlety often can explode emotions larger than realism. Hal Hartley understands this. The characters in his film do not talk like real people. Their speech is subdued, flat, and usually bluntly honest. Their small words carry mountains of meaning. Most mystery films focus on the identity of the bad guy. This film instead chooses to explore the bad guy's identity. The film opens with him laying unconscious on a cobblestone street. He awakes but has no idea who he is. With this premise, the audience always knows who the bad guy is. He is in almost every frame of the feature. The rest of the film sets about discovering who the bad guy is. I'm avoiding the film's plot. Telling too much about this film steals many of its pleasures, although I have enjoyed it each of the ten times I have seen it. Most scenes are arranged as artfully as a painting, the actors understand and enlarge Hartley's vision, and the music, ranging from Liz Phair to Pavement, is excellent. This film may well be the best the ninties have to offer. Hartley's own Simple Men is one of the only other real contenders.
Rating:
Summary: Best Hartley Ever
Review: This is my favorite Hal Hartley film, several of the scenes do not fail to bring a tear to my eye or give me a feeling of frisson and I saw it for the first time in 1995. I think that should say it all. Purist Hartley fans seem to believe that Trust is the quintessential Hartley, and while I agree that the film is great, Amateur has a much more complicated plot and explores more complicated issues. The film is all about ontology. What is the nature of being? Can one change? What is memory? Is there an essential nature to existence or is existence mutable depending on experience? Don't think, however, this is some weird indie/foreign flick heavy on the meaning. Hartley manages to pose all of the above questions within a film that is quirky and funny and deadpan and sad and wonderful all at the same time. Yes, I know this man.
Rating:
Summary: Best Hartley Ever
Review: This is my favorite Hal Hartley film, several of the scenes do not fail to bring a tear to my eye or give me a feeling of frisson and I saw it for the first time in 1995. I think that should say it all. Purist Hartley fans seem to believe that Trust is the quintessential Hartley, and while I agree that the film is great, Amateur has a much more complicated plot and explores more complicated issues. The film is all about ontology. What is the nature of being? Can one change? What is memory? Is there an essential nature to existence or is existence mutable depending on experience? Don't think, however, this is some weird indie/foreign flick heavy on the meaning. Hartley manages to pose all of the above questions within a film that is quirky and funny and deadpan and sad and wonderful all at the same time. Yes, I know this man.
Rating:
Summary: preachin' to the converted
Review: this is one of the best movies you'll find! hal hartley is one of america's most underrated filmmakers, right up there with p.t. anderson. for the uninitiated, hals' films stretch desire to its' very breaking point...see this and you'll be scouring your local video stores for everything that you can by the guy. if only hollywood had more people like him making movies instead of all of the junk that tries to see how many different ways one can blow things up!
Rating:
Summary: preachin' to the converted
Review: this is one of the best movies you'll find! hal hartley is one of america's most underrated filmmakers, right up there with p.t. anderson. for the uninitiated, hals' films stretch desire to its' very breaking point...see this and you'll be scouring your local video stores for everything that you can by the guy. if only hollywood had more people like him making movies instead of all of the junk that tries to see how many different ways one can blow things up!
Rating: 
Summary: Hartley's best.
Review: This was the first Hal Hartley film that I saw, and I think it's his best. It's and incredilbe and unpredictalbe movie that is just begging to be watched over and over again!! I'd try to explain it, but I'm afraid I'd just confuse the reader and potential viewer. Just check it out. It may not be to your taste, but you won't know if you don't try.
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