Many years after her notorious husband, Henry Fool, fled after killing a neighbor, Fay Grim receives a visit from CIA agent Fulbright, who tells her that Henry is dead, but that some of his journals have been unearthed in France. She sets forth on a globe-trotting odyssey that soon leads to the discovery that he is alive, and his journals are more than they appear to be.

An egocentric bum transforms the lives of a shy New Jersey garbageman and his sister.

1994 film by Hal Hartley

Dennis is a handsome and bookish college student. His brother, Bill, is a roughhewn ladies' man and thief. Together they search for their dad, confront their expectations of each other, themselves, and their attitudes towards women.

1991年法国杜维尔电影节观众奖
1991年圣丹斯电影节荧幕特别奖
1991年圣保罗国际电影节观众奖
高中辍学生玛利亚告诉家人自己怀孕后，父亲倒毙地上，母亲把她踢出家门，男朋友弃她而去。于是她孤零零一个人无家可归。此时她遇上马修。他是个修理电子器械很有天分的高中毕业生，但他有个原则：质量至上，这使得他每份工作都做不长久。当玛利亚接受了马修的帮助，他们便展开一段令彼此发生转变的关系……
When high school dropout Maria Coughlin announces her pregnancy to her parents, her father drops dead on the floor. Her mother kicks her out of the house and her boyfriend dumps her, so Maria is left alone and homeless. This is when she meets Matthew Slaughter. Matthew is an educated high school graduate with a great talent for fixing electronic devices, but he can't hang on to a job because of his principled attitude towards quality. When Maria accepts Matthew's offer to help her, they begin to form a relationship with each other in which both of them begin to change.

Two students and their teacher seem to be literally fighting over the proper solution to a complex mathematical equation. Is it the key to time and space or a coded instruction manual about their own secret urges? An alchemical action movie? A real life cartoon with original music by Dutch heavyweight Louis Andriessen. Hal Hartley fashioned this whimsical piece of fight choreography with three of his recent performer/collaborators: Miho Nikaido, David Neumann and DJ Mendel.

It is March 1 1994 and we see four characters while New York is under attack.

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.

The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Tokyo). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a "permanent" relationship, what do they choose to do?

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.