Rating: 3.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2023 | 16/52 | Independent American Cinema
Take off! What's she gonna do, kill herself?
Paul is an office drone, training the temp. Work ends, and he goes home, despondent, waiting for any messages to come on his machine.
He goes out to the diner to read. Marcy tells him she loves the book, and they start up a conversation. She gives Paul her number, and Paul calls her when he gets home and she invites him over.
The evening goes downhill when his taxi drives too fast and all of his money flies out an open window. Paul’s evening is just getting started.
Paul’s surreal night in SoHo begins, where everything conspires against him — a screaming papier mâché sculpture, an indiscernible burn victim, a 60s-inspired cocktail waitress, a punk club with specific entry rules, and a robber that people keep mistaking Paul for.
The cinematography is breakneck and smooth — it reminds me of Bringing Out the Dead, but less focused.
Paul sucks. He’s self-involved and goes from zero to 100, blowing up on everyone for the littlest things. He might get some sympathy if he wasn’t such a jackass.
I don’t love the “one crazy night” trope that much unless it bounces around. This is an interesting take on it, with how weird and existential it gets, but it consistently overlaps with itself and it gets old. I see why folks like this, though.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this is still good.