Adrienne Shelly

Quote:
From the very beginning of Trust, Hal Hartley’s spellbinding second feature, snotty naïveté and cultured cynicism intertwine and dance in locked, hypnotic two-step. Just as teenaged Maria (Adrienne Shelly) tells her parents that she’s been knocked up by her high school’s alpha jock, leading her father to literally drop dead, Matthew (Martin Donovan) throws a tantrum of anti-technological philosophy in the repair division of a computer corporation where he works. While her idyllic future with quarterback Anthony comes crashing to the ground when he rejects her, Matthew remains stilted by his inability to cut ties with his abusive father (John MacKay). They meet-not-particularly-cute in an abandoned home and fall for each other in an odd, intriguingly deadpan way that underlines the unlikeliness of their union.Read More »

A woman forces a man to move forward with his life after his wife dumps him.Read More »

A comedic urban fantasy which graphs the foibles of a young Manhattan resident, Donna, who’s under seige in her own neighborhood. Laid off from her museum job, harassed by her love-obsessed landlord, and simply uninspired to leave her own apartment, Donna’s already complex life takes a turn for the worst when she inadvertently witnesses a murder. She then begins to doubt her own sanity as she encounters prophetic street poets, dysfunctional would-be boyfriends, and love-deranged friends.Read More »

Synopsis
The unlikely relationship between a pregnant high school student and a brooding electronics repairman lies at the center of this droll comedy from writer-director Hal Hartley. Intelligent but unconventional, Maria (Adrienne Shelly) has more to worry about than her pregnancy, as her expectant state drives away her boyfriend and triggers a fatal heart attack in her father. Meanwhile, Matthew (Martin Donovan) has his own problems: an abusive father, a heightened sense of morality that prevents him from taking semi-lucrative television repair jobs, and a suicidal streak that causes him to carry around a potentially deadly grenade. The meeting of these troubled minds at first promises to be beneficial for both, but sours as they are forced to interact with each other’s dysfunctional families. As in all of Hartley’s pictures, the narrative is filtered through an amusingly detached sensibility that some may consider an acquired taste.
~ Judd Blaise, All Movie GuideRead More »