The Unbelievable Truth

Year of Release:  1989

Director:  Hal Hartley

Screenplay:  Hal Hartley

Starring:  Adrienne Shelly, Robert Burke

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Romantic comedy, drama

In a small Long Island community, cynical teenager Audry Hugo (Shelly) is about to leave high school for college however Audry, who is obsessed with nuclear annihilation, is convinced that the world will end any day, and so doesn't see the point in higher education.  Recently released from prison, talented mechanic Josh (Burke) takes a job at a garage owned by Audry's father (Christopher Cooke).  A cloud of suspicion hangs around Josh because, while it is generally agreed that he was convicted of murder, no-one can remember what it was he actually did.  When Audry and Josh meet they immediately fall in love, but friends, family and a series of misunderstandings prove that the course of true love will not run smooth.

American writer/director Hal Hartley was something of a darling in the independent film scene through the 1990s.  The Unbelievable Truth was Hartley's debut film, and also marked the debut for lead Adrienne Shelly.  The tone of the film is quirky and very deadpan, it meanders along without much of a plot to speak of, with characters mainly delineated by their quirks and preoccupations rather than anything else.  While the quiet, deadpan humour won't be to all tastes, if you can get on the film's wavelength it is pretty funny.  The main problem is that it does at times feel too self-consciously hip and quirky for it's own good and it could almost be shown to students as the stereotypical late '80s American indie film.  Adrienne Shelley is engaging in the lead, and Robert Burke does what he can with what he's given as walking cipher Josh.  There is also an early appearance from Edie Falco, who went on to fame on TV in The Sopranos (1999-2007) and Nurse Jackie (2009-2015), and future director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Night Moves (2013) and First Cow (2019)) has a small cameo and worked as Wardrobe Supervisor.  This is an engaging, likeable movie, which has enough charms to balance out it's rough patches.  

Robert Burke and Adrienne Shelly face The Unbelievable Truth

Meek's Cutoff

Year of Release: 2010

Director:  Kelly Reichardt

Screenplay:  Jonathan Raymond

Starring:  Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:    Western, drama

This film is set in 1845 during the Oregon Trail, a small group of settlers throw in with disreputable guide Stephen Meek (Greenwood), who claims that he knows a short cut through the Oregon High Desert.  As a journey of two weeks becomes five, tensions among the group increase, as food, water and other supplies start to run low.  Things come to a head when the group kidnap a lone Native American (Rod Rondeaux), and try to force him to show them where they can find water.

This meditative, slow burning Western may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you stick with it, it casts a surprising spell.  The film is beautifully photographed, with long still shots, often depicting the characters in the middle distance, dwarfing them among the grandeur of the landscape.  The cast is note perfect, and it rings the changes with the traditional Western by staying mainly with the women, left out of the main decisions and debates which are held at a remove with the sound muted.  Very little really happens in the film, with it being mostly characters trudging through a beautiful but bleak landscape with occasional muttered discussing and arguments.  It tried my patience at first, but after I had got used to the film's rhythms and pace I really got into it, and, if you go along with it, it is really absorbing.  

  

Michelle Williams in Meek's Cutoff