kobsidian

What a great film to have stumbled upon!

Low key, no guns, no sex. Just people muddling through life and revealing bits of their humanity to one another.

This is Harvey Keitel at his best. The rest of the cast is fine, too. Especially good to see Harold Perrineau in an early role.

The last bit, with Keitel sharing his Christmas story with Hurt is absolutely wonderful.

I must applaud Paul Auster for writing this. It moves me to find a novel of his to read. (I've read one, which I liked, but not so much as I enjoyed this).

And kudos to Wayne Wang, for the naturalistic look of the film, and for showing this understated side of New York. It brought back pleasant memories of the workaday, grungy city of streets. '

A very pleasant surprise. This is an allegory about an imagined socialist paradise, and the judgements that various archetypical citizens would have of it. I Loved it.

It happens that I watched this - on FUBI - on the same night that I watched a documentary about Jane Jacobs, the sociologist of cities and advocate of bottom-up community building. This was a perfect follow up.

It's presented as a series of exchanges between the disparate characters, contrasting their values, experience and social orientation. While it could be criticized as didactic and predictable, I found it well executed and fun. I especially loved Googie Withers as the working class gal whose been around the block a few times but isn't ready to go cynical.

In tone and flavor it's like a blend of Capra with Powell & Pressburger.