Review of Two Lovers (1928) by Manu G — 03 Nov 2009

Yes I watched this at 2 AM - try getting tonsillitis and see how it fucks up your sleep schedule - but I wanted to jot down some quick thoughts and flixter seemed as good a place as any. It doesn't hurt my flat-out adoration of this film that Phoenix's Leonard acts exactly the way I would in every situation, nor that the film is something of an adult companion piece to David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" and in some scenes an older cousin of "Adventureland", or that the performances are all pitch-perfect (so is Elias Koteas just DA GREATEST or what?), but what I love most is the way that Gray's handsome-as-all-hell direction matches the melancholy rhythm of Leonard's brain - focusing on fingertips against a cheek, a cut of roast beef, a glove, a strand of hair.

Then there's those gorgeous rooftop scenes I won't even begin to talk about because it's four in the morning, but I haven't connected with a film this deeply, this intimately since, well, "All the Real Girls" and watching this was like coming home.