Saw two movies:
Klown
The NYT reviewed it perfectly. Don’t have much to add, except to say that I laughed myself silly. It’s a stupidly funny film loosely patterned after the narrative structure of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (H/T TLMW), but with a triple dose of inappropriateness. This is not your father’s Dogme 95 Danish movie fare, but a hilarious “Tour de Pussy” that is, in parts, quite sublimely depraved.
The Imposter
This film was shown at Sundance earlier this year but I didn’t get to watch it there. The film is a quasi-documentary (it includes some re-creations) from which one can only walk away thinking truth is stranger than fiction. It tells the story of a 23-year-old French Algerian man in Spain who with dark hair and dark eyes came to pass himself off as a blond-haired, blue-eyed, and younger boy from Texas who’d been missing for nearly four years — fooling international officials and, most incredibly, the boy’s family. Yes, it is that bizarre and incredible. It’s all about deception, self-delusion and the desire to believe.
One of the priceless characters in this movie is a private investigator called Charlie Parker. This guy is the quintessential gumshoe who not only looks the part (see below) but who also has got to be one of the most brilliant figures in the history of documentaries. I don’t want to say he steals the show, because this is about much more than him, but he is the perfect deus ex machina for the last third of the film.
Gripping and thoroughly mesmerizing stuff. Here’s an interesting interview with Charlie Parker (spoiler alert).
