ife is so tough in the big city that our hero has to run a gauntlet of assailants just walking to work. Once there, blasé urban hipsters drop philosophical bombshells like cigarette ashes on a carpet. A leather-jacketed artiste of some sort or another, his figure endures the perils of fame, from glib arse-kissers to critics who throw literal punches instead of derogatory adjectives. Its absurdity peaking in a ballet of slo-mo slapstick, this very funny, distinctively Hal Hartley short weighs the value of ambition. Its verdict? Meh. - Dennis Harvey

Jude, a college literature professor, falls for one of his students. She is more interested in the empirical experience of a relationship with a man whose life is ruled by the themes of the Russian Lit. he extolls in class. Jude shows an interesting side of the stigmas associated with transgenerational relationships and how to deal with the inevitable pain of a love doomed to failure.