天河

亿万富翁陈建华秘密召开了一场相亲，得到消息并有志于上位成为豪门太太的女生们一个个摩拳擦掌。但当他们来到一个封闭房间后，却发现这一场相亲大会十分诡异，这更像是一场招聘会，而不是一场相亲会。当他们等待许久却只等来一张空白试卷，不明所以的众人开始猜测这场诡异相亲的真正意图，当他们身份一个个揭开，一场场撕逼大战后，他们才真正发现：这一切只是一场精心策划的大骗局。

　　慕容孤芳本为慕容世家传人，为重振家族声威，准备从武林首富白玉楼手中夺取唐门火册。可惜，白的挚友、大侠沉胜衣一直在白家作客，让慕容不敢贸然下手，慕容遂化名金梅盗向白发出怪帖，声言要劫走其女白冰；沉出移花接木之计，将其女友步烟飞冒充白冰，以查出红梅盗的下落。

　　During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob — and change the course of history.
　　With two Deaf candidates up for the role of president, Gallaudet University students saw the possibility of finally being led by someone like them. But when the board of trustees — composed overwhelmingly of hearing individuals — selected the lone hearing candidate, the groundswell of student activism that followed forced a reckoning of more than a century of paternalism. Told primarily through American Sign Language, Deaf President Now! creates an immediacy through immersive archival footage and experiential use of silence and sound. Gallaudet alumnus, model, actor, and Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco (America’s Next Top Model) makes his directorial debut alongside veteran filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, 2023 Sundance Film Festival) with this rousing documentary that demonstrates the power of collective action to demand meaningful change, foster self-determination, and realize dreams long deferred.

　　Fraught with over obvious symbolism, Hartley's early feature is nonetheless a joy to watch. Hal here shows us his uncanny ability to cast his characters perfectly came early in his career.
　　Adrienne Shelley is a near perfect foil to herself, equal parts annoying teen burgeoning in her sexuality (though using sex for several years); obsessed with doom and inspired by idealism gone wrong she is deceptively – and simultaneously – complex and simple. Her Audrey inspires so many levels of symbolism it is almost embarrassingly rich (e.g., her modeling career beginning with photos of her foot – culminating her doing nude (but unseen) work; Manhattan move; Europe trip; her stealing, then sleeping with the mechanics wrench, etc.)
　　As Josh, Robert Burke gives an absolutely masterful performance. A reformed prisoner/penitent he returns to his home town to face down past demons, accept his lot and begin a new life. Dressed in black, and repeatedly mistaken for a priest, he corrects everyone ("I'm a mechanic"), yet the symbolism is rich: he abstains from alcohol, he practices celibacy (is, in fact a virgin), and seemingly has taken on vows of poverty, and humility as well. The humility seems hardest to swallow seeming, at times, almost false, a pretense. Yet, as we learn more of Josh we see genuineness in his modesty, that his humility is indeed earnest and believable. What seems ironic is the character is fairly forthright in his simplicity, yet so richly drawn it becomes the viewer who wants to make him out as more than what he actually is. A fascinatingly written character, perfectly played.
　　The scene between Josh and Jane (a wonderful, young Edie Falco . . . "You need a woman not a girl") is hilarious . . . real. But Hartley can't leave it as such and his trick, having the actors repeat the dialogue over-and-over becomes frustratingly "arty" and annoying . . . until again it becomes hilarious. What a terrific sense of bizarre reality this lends the film (like kids in a perpetual "am not"/"are too" argument).
　　Hartley's weaves all of a small neighborhood's idiosyncrasies into a tapestry of seeming stereotypes but which delves far beneath the surface, the catalyst being that everyone believes they know what the "unbelievable truth" of the title is, yet no two people can agree (including our hero) on what exactly that truth is. A wonderful little movie with some big ideas.