Review of Fay Grim (2007) by The Fat Man Q — 24 Aug 2011

As you may have figured out, I have trouble praising good films. There's just not much to say without ruining them. I'll do my best though.

Fay Grim stars the Queen of Indie, Parker Posey. While she's fabulously talented, I just don't find her that attractive, and therefore I'm not as excited as I should be about her 16 films a year. But I digress, and I'm not sure why I even went there. Psychoanalyze me, psychos.

This is actually my first Hal Hartley film, and I was pleasantly surprised by the twisting story and fast paced dialog. I think Fay Grim is probably a little too smart for most viewers - not Syriana "smart" where it throws unrelated facts at you for a few hours and then ends with a flash of confusion, but smart in that if you're rooting around in your popcorn, you might miss what's going on. There's no repetition, it just moves.

I had the added bonus of hearing Hartley speak about his film at the Atlanta Film Festival. He didn't respond at length to many questions until someone asked about dutch angles. Then he started talking. He apparently loves them, in case you didn't figure it out by watching. He also spoke about his creative process on set where he acts out the movement he'd like to see, and then has his actors do their interpretation of how he was moving, and calls it a day. I'd love to be on set for a lot of that - fast moving and efficient film making.

Go rent it, you won't regret it.