WHO MADE IT? | Director: Bent Hamer Cast: Matt Dillon, Lily Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens | WHAT’S IT ABOUT? | Henry Chinaski (Dillon) is one of cinema’s lovely losers – someone who sabotages ever opportunity he ever makes for himself by giving up before he’s given it a chance. In time-honoured movie-fashion, he drinks, smokes and gambles his way from one dead-end job to the next and from one doting girlfriend to another. In a series of episodes from his life, his life hovers somewhere between below average and downright depressing, living in decrepit apartments as he tries to follow his dream of becoming a writer. | WHAT'S IT LIKE? | Given the subject matter, this film is surprisingly breezy. It’s partly because of Dillon’s carefree performance sticks two fingers up – or, given that it’s American, just the one – to all society’s conventions that say you should aim to settle down and find a sensible job. He lives his life on the edge, doing what he wants, when he wants – and chasing an apparently futile dream. His encounters are balanced precariously in that cinematic territory, somewhere between reality and surrealism – somewhere in the vicinity of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The writings of Charles Bukowski are darker than Larry David’s take on the hopelessness of everyday life – not least because one’s a loser, when it comes to writing and women and the other is a successful Hollywood writer with a beautiful wife. It’s intentionally episodic – some of the elements work better than others. This kind of film can never be a rewarding way to spend an hour and a half unless it’s considerably more hit than miss, which this isn’t, but if you have little else to do, there are certainly moments that will make it worth your while. | Opens nationwide on 18th November 2005
