Review of Broken English (2007) by Kifah F — 13 Aug 2007

An uneven, but somewhat impressive debut feature from John Cassavetes daughter Zoe. It suffers from far too much emotional exposition (i.e characters actually saying things like "I just feel all bunched up" and "I just feel so unlucky with love").

But there are some moments of real brilliance. Parker Posey is (mostly) stunning in the picture and Cassavetes does a great job, in parts, of depicting the character's psychological and existential state with subtlety and nuance (the sequence that invokes Nora's panic attack is executed with great economy on both Posey and Cassavetes part).

And the scene where Nora goes on a blind date and encounters the man's ex captures the exciting balance of comedy, tragedy and social awkwardness that made her father's films so revolutionary.

Not particularly great, but it certainly has its moments and Cassavetes proves she is a director to watch.