This is 45: Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts in Noah Baumbach's While We're Young
Photo courtesy of TIFFJesse Hawthorne Ficks reports from the recent 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Previous installment here!
In high school, Hal Hartley was my first cinematic battle. On paper, his existential themes of truth, his French New Wave references, and the stilted dialogue he favored seemed like they would align perfectly with my sensibilities. Like many film students of the era, I gobbled up The Unbelievable Truth (1989), Trust (1990), and Surviving Desire (1993) multiple times. But as Simple Men (1992), Amateur (1994), and Flirt (1995) graced art-house theaters, I found Hartley's films to be more and more like fingernails shrieking down a neverending chalkboard.