Simple Men (Hal Hartley, 1992)

The career of Hal Hartley, a filmmaker who could be bracketed twenty years ago in the U.S. indie sphere alongside the Jarmusches and Soderberghs, rather fizzled out thereafter. In truth, none of his low-key tales of the time quite found a hook, being too laconically whimsical and underscripted to project a clear sense of direction. Hence in Simple Men too, involving two brothers lying low from the police and meeting two challenging women in a Long Island backwater, the characters drift along exchanging mildly humorous epigrams and declarations until a sort of entropy is reached in place of a finale. It's pleasant and at the same time quite ephemeral.

5/10