Dennis is a handsome and bookish college student. His brother, Bill, is a roughhewn ladies' man and thief. Together they search for their dad, confront their expectations of each other, themselves, and their attitudes towards women.
Robert John Burke Bill Sage Karen Sillas Elina Löwensohn Martin Donovan Mark Chandler Bailey Christopher Cooke Jeffrey Howard Holly Marie Combs Joe Stevens Damian Young Marietta Marich John MacKay Bethany Wright Richard Reyes James Hansen Prince Ed Geldart Vivian Lanko Alissa Alban Jo Perkins Margaret Bowman Mary McKenzie Matt Malloy
Uomini semplici, Простые люди, シンプルメン, גברים פשוטים, Prości faceci, 小人物狂想曲, 심플맨, Doi oameni simpli
France
Cannes Film Festival
USAR
France
France
USA
are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression??
that sonic youth dance sequence is pretty much the greatest contribution ever made to cinema
Between the sparse, jarring yet ethereal soundtrack and the small-town-with-something-to-hide setting, this film turns out to be a pretty great episode of Twin Peaks, complete with non sequitur musical sequences and stilted dialogue that skims the surface of philosophical and social meaning while still being somehow endearing. If it had an ounce of supernatural element to it, I'd say Hal Hartley had just made his own pilot to an alternate Twin Peaks series. Instead, it's just an independent film indebted to Lynch's weird amalgam television masterpiece that happens to capture the zeitgeist of its era--or at least, the appearance of it--deftly.
I had seen the "I CAN'T STAND THE QUIET" musical sequence before, posted to Facebook by a friend discussing…
Practically no director is better at framing his actors than Hartley, and that extreme, Bressonian formalism only further emphasizes the self-aware distance of his dialogue. Simple Men is something of a miracle... a send-up of male melodrama that still manages to pack an emotional wallop (that closing shot!). Direct yet layered, it rewards active viewership in a way that few comedies do.
90/100
has a very hal hartley sensibility that i've struggled with previously -- right now i want to describe it as "alt," which is funny to me since that sounds absolutely up my alley. and it kind of is here -- a sort of blunt, dry sense of humor birthed from ennui and discontent, in a town steeped in a very quotidian brand of mystery. speaking of alt, the sonic youth "kool thing" sequence is one of my favorite things i've seen. the uncomplicated choreography of stomping, the passing of the cigarette, the intrusion of slow dancers...
35mm. Metrograph.
the way characters talk in this is like how parrots talk, with command of language but with something vital missing in there somewhere, like one of those animatronic bears that gives you coins for notes at a slot machine place. people don't talk like this in reality... but it'd be a lot cooler if they did. you just have to sort of let this one vibe, flying completely off the rails, no set plan whatsoever, moving direction simply because it saw something pretty it wants to follow... every so often when watching a film someone ridiculously attractive comes on screen and all you can say is "oh come on"
The last part of Hal Hartley’s Long Island Trilogy is like a homecoming party for cast members of the prior films, where you feel like you are reunited with family. Again there’s no plot links between the three films - though two characters return from The Unbelievable Truth to show we’re in the same universe. And a few new kids join the club - most notably Elina Löwensohn, who became an indie darling in the 90s (and is still going today, more recently in She Is Conann, complete with dog mask ;) ).
Bill (Robert Burke) and Dennis (Bill Sage) are mismatched brothers. Bill is a criminal whose big score just got ruined when his girlfriend and partner betrayed him.…
I’ve watched four Hal Hartley films in the last two and a half weeks, and it’s been a lot of fun. At the beginning of his films, the dialogue can feel a bit stilted. Then, without my even noticing, the dialogue starts feeling organic-and there’s always great lines.
Just like in Amateur, Elina Löwensohn gets off some zingers; there’s some gems during a debate about Madonna, and she logically body slams one of the brothers with a “Why don’t you make love to your mother?” burn. She would have held her own in the Reservoir Dogs diner debate in a couple ways. Plus, the dance scene to Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” is an all-timer. So great!
At times this feels strangely like someone doing their best Hal Hartley impression—the deadpan, stilted wit and uneasiness come off as a cheap impression here, whereas in his other, superior works, it manages to feel somehow genuine, a balancing act I must admit I’m quite an admirer of—until it doesn’t, at which point Hartley then reminds us that it is in fact him and that he is just as capable of being a wacky oddball as he is a sincere empath with something incredibly meaningful to say about the different, messy human qualities we (hopefully, for the sake of our level of social acceptability to others) do not talk about at parties or the family dinner table.
From the oft-panegyrized…
"All money is dirty money"
[Let the February mini marathon of Hal Hartley movies leaving Criterion Channel continue!]
Two brothers, Bill (Robert John Burke) and Dennis (Bill Sage) McCabe, set off together to track down their estranged father who has just escaped from jail. Neither have any money or any immediate prospects in life. As is in any good road trip movie, the journey presents unexpected opportunities and answers along the way.
Simple Men is another eccentric, offbeat Hartley film filled with witty, insightful dialogue. The balancing act between unnatural philosophical conversations about the nature of law and how it differs from government and natural interpersonal relationships is something that would be very easy to screw up and careen into…
90s 2nd wave emo x Twin Peaks crossover
all pastel sadnesses and autumnal gazes
making connexions through emotions trapped under ice and ruminating on what a future is within a fucked present
there is such a quiet softness to Hartley films that feel so unique. like they never address the idea that they're films or art, just odd quixotic human experiences, meandering infront of the screen like a river bend, through time carving a deeper curve into the banks. caught on film, placed gently into the box.
-"The law and the government are the same thing."
-"No it isn't. The government doesn't have to obey the law."
-"Well maybe that's not the way things should be."
-"Who wants a fucking government that's gotta obey the law?"
-"A lot of people do!"
-"Yeah? Well that's why a lot of people aren't running this country!"
-"You're drunk."
In hindsight, I think it makes a certain amount of sense that a draft of Simple Men predated even The Unbelievable Truth (according to True Fiction Pictures & Possible Films, Hartley wrote an early version in 1985), as even the final results feel much closer in both style and temperament to Hartley's debut than they do to Trust or Surviving Desire, and not…
