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Lymelife – sp – This is an Independent film put together by two brothers who grew up in Long Island and wanted to show the nature of relationships between people that they had observed in their youth in the 70s and early 80s. They were able to put together an outstanding cast of Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Emma Roberts and Culkin brothers Rory and Kiernan. They all turned in extremely fine performances (with a low budget and brief time to shoot) It is directed by Derrick Martini, one of the brothers, who wrote the screenplay. Not surprising he most effectively captured the budding romantic relationship of the young teenagers in the film whom he best understood and this makes the film worth seeing. 2009

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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men – sp – This is a somewhat unusual film which uses a mostly non narrative style of brief interviews with men plus a series of disjointed scenes of interaction mostly between the young women researcher played by Julianne Nicholson and various men. There appears to be an attempt to provide insight into these men’s relationships with women and perhaps into their sexual feelings. The screenplay was written and directed by John Krasinski in his first movie who also acted in it. The content was taken from the writings of David Forster Wallace an essayist and novelist who died last year by suicide at the age of 46. He apparently has a large following that meet regularly on the Internet to discuss his obtuse writings. The acting in the movie was quite good and included Tim Hutton. The Director of Photography was renowned cinematographer John Bailey who was a guest at our screening. He described how three different editors all tried their hand at putting together this movie. In our opinion we don’t see the threads that this final version used. There was one small segment in the film, which seemed unrelated to the others but was quite riveting. It showed an older black man recounting the inner life and feelings of his father who worked for many years as an attendant in a high-end hotel men’s room. We will be surprised if this movie generates much momentum and may not even make it to your local screen. (2009)