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FAY GRIM, a new film written and directed by Hal Hartley

Fay Grim is a single Mom from Woodside, Queens, New York, manically preoccupied with raising her 14 year old son, Ned, so he won't grow up to be like his father.

His father, Henry, is missing.

Seven years earlier, he accidentally killed a vicious neighbor and fled – never to be seen or heard from again.

Fay's brother, Simon, is a popularly vilified and world famous poet (formerly a garbage man) serving ten years in prison for aiding and abetting Henry's escape. In the quiet of his cell, Simon has had time to think about the tumultuous years of Henry's presence amongst them – chronicled earlier in the film Henry Fool (1997).

Simon has come to suspect that Henry was not the ego-maniac garbage man, sex fiend, and failed literary genius he appeared to be. He suspects Henry's apparently worthless autobiography – his “Confessionsâ€

Very interesting! I still need to catch up with The Girl from Monday.

I loved Henry Fool and think its Hartley's best work but I'm skeptical about a sequel. I haven't seen Girl From Monday yet but I think No Such Thing was really overlooked. Great movie.

Yeah, No Such Thing was the first Hartley film I saw, and it really hooked me. I saw the Girl From Monday, I didn't like it that much, it probably has to do with how it was shot, I think it was Mini DV. Like the Book of Life, but that was much better.

I loved Henry Fool, and I'm looking forward to seeing those characters again.

Hated No Such Thing and Book of Life, adore everything else (well, maybe not Flirt). If you like the late stuff though I would assume you'd like the earlier,more nuanced work. Try Simple Men for a start.

Scott Tobias from the Onion blogs:

Following years of enormous cachet as a grad-school hero—for the longest time, I thought his films existed to help English majors get laid—Hal Hartley has been on the downward slope for some time. So it's especially curious to see Hartley make Fay Grim, a decade-removed sequel to Henry Fool that treats the Hartley universe a little like Kevin Smith's Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. But does anyone still care? Fortunately, Hartley's self-reflexive movie has plenty of laughs, especially in the first half, and it evolves into a reasonably fresh goof on the international spy thriller. But the thing about goofs is that they're too inconsequential to sustain much more than 90 minutes and Fay Grim goes on another 30 minutes more, thanks to Hartley's (again, Smith-like) inability to trim the fat.

This is disappointing to hear, but I thought Thomas Jay Ryan's performance in Henry Fool was criminally overlooked (as was the film and the actor himself) so it will be a treat to see him revist the character again.

I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.

Antoine Doinel wrote:I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.

It's being distributed by Magnolia Pictures. They actually co-produced it.

Antoine Doinel wrote:...but I thought Thomas Jay Ryan's performance in Henry Fool was criminally overlooked (as was the film and the actor himself)...

It might been overlooked in America, but it did win best screenplay at Cannes in '98. I still think that Henry was running away from the plane...

Matt wrote:

Antoine Doinel wrote:I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.

It's being distributed by Magnolia Pictures. They actually co-produced it.

I interned in NY at another company that co-produced this one and I'm surprised that it was completed so quickly... when I was working there it was an upcoming production (when other films that were in production have yet to be completed)... this was one of only two good films in pre-production when I was working there (the other one is a Todd Solondz film). I can't wait to see it.

So you interned for Ted Hope, eh?

Grimfarrow wrote:So you interned for Ted Hope, eh?

yes, yes I did.

It's kind of nice that Parker Posey is having a kind of career resurgence. Granted, it's kind of scattershot (supporting roles in comic book movies big and small, TV work in dramas and... "Project Runway", this movie), but she's never not interesting to watch and she's often the best thing about whatever she's in. She'll never be the big star that people expected her to be, but she can at least be the Eve Arden of her generation.

my school screened Amateur last night and i loved it. Really looking foward to this.

Here's the trailer.

It's getting one of those near simultaneous theatrical and DVD releases - in theatres May 18, on DVD May 22.

Posey and Goldblum together equals almost guaranteed good time

this film was great... entertaining and quite original...
a lot of fun.

Go Team Venture - Urbaniak is here, too! Ur, go Hal Hartley I mean! This films does look good. I'm glad I got the Henry Fool DVD a few weeks ago. It's nice to see that Elina Lowensohn and Saffron Burrows are in it, too.

TJ Ryan is only in this for a few minutes. Easily HH's worst film. On the bright side, the DV doesn't look that bad. Maybe there is hope for this format. One of the worst films I've seen this year.

I think it's the only good film I've seen from this year and maybe the only good Hartley film (I haven't seen em all but this seems miles beyond the others), so WHO KNOWS. I laughed so much during the first thirty minutes, more than I have at any movie in a long, long time.

So this is why Hal Hartley hasn't made a film in a few years. Caught up with this today, and while I agree with domino that the first 30 minutes are quite funny, the other 90 minutes are insufferable. While the film starts a spy movie goof (though why it had to be done with the characters from Henry Fool is beyond me), Hartley begins to believe his own BS and the rest of the film plays it disappointingly straight. Add to that, this is probably Parker's hammiest performance outside of Superman Returns. The only upside is that Hartley chooses to dress Parker in little more than an overcoat, bra and panties for the Paris segment which leads to the best gag of the whole film. All that said, when we finally get to Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Fool, it's like he's being fed leftover lines from the first film. Overall, this thing is quite the train wreck.

He's gone on to directing opera in Holland.

Barmy wrote:He's gone on to directing opera in Holland.

At least he didn't force-feed Elina Lowensohn on them.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Hartley prepping another Henry Fool sequel

In one of the extra features on the "Fay Grim" DVD, I remember them half-joking about making a third film, and that "Fay Grim" was the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy.

jorencain wrote:

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Hartley prepping another Henry Fool sequel

In one of the extra features on the "Fay Grim" DVD, I remember them half-joking about making a third film, and that "Fay Grim" was the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy.

Man, that is like a bad joke. Henry Fool is one of his greatest films and the very idea of a sequel seemed like a desecration to me. Of course, I saw Fay Grim anyway and once was more than enough. After Meanwhile, it felt like Hartley was returning from the wilderness and I hoped he'd continue making new work in that same pared-down mode. Maybe this will be a "sequel" in name only.