Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
Miranda July's debut feature is a genuinely singular piece of work — its deadpan comic sensibility, strange internet-mediated intimacy, and off-kilter emotional logic give it an unmistakable voice that no other filmmaker could have made. The episodic, loosely connected vignettes about loneliness, desire, and human connection feel fresh and idiosyncratic, particularly the infamous )))<>((( chat subplot and the kids' odd sexual experiments. Acting is naturalistic and unshowy, fitting the film's aesthetic without being flashy. Cinematography is quietly inventive but modest in ambition. The ending is characteristically low-key and bittersweet — satisfying but not transcendent. Novelty is the film's clear standout quality.