I'll Take You There

Rating:
Summary: an amazingly charming movie
Review: Sudden Manhattan may not have been much of a movie, but I enjoyed seeing Adrienne Shelly again enough to also pick up this one when it came out. I wasn't expecting much from it.

First surprise: Adrienne Shelly is only in the movie for a few minutes, playing our hero's brother in a bit part. The movie belongs to Ally Sheedy.

Second surprise: This is a terrific movie! No longer trying to somehow assemble events and characters from her own life into 120 coherent minutes of film (with coherence the loser when this proved impossible) frees Ms. Shelly to write a good story and make it all work together. It probably doesn't hurt that the cast is so good, but all in all, this is a better, more focused, more likable movie than even Hal Hartley has made in a few years.

Rating:
Summary: an amazingly charming movie
Review: Sudden Manhattan may not have been much of a movie, but I enjoyed seeing Adrienne Shelly again enough to also pick up this one when it came out. I wasn't expecting much from it.

First surprise: Adrienne Shelly is only in the movie for a few minutes, playing our hero's brother in a bit part. The movie belongs to Ally Sheedy.

Second surprise: This is a terrific movie! No longer trying to somehow assemble events and characters from her own life into 120 coherent minutes of film (with coherence the loser when this proved impossible) frees Ms. Shelly to write a good story and make it all work together. It probably doesn't hurt that the cast is so good, but all in all, this is a better, more focused, more likable movie than even Hal Hartley has made in a few years.