The Unbelievable Truth (film)

Last updated

The Unbelievable Truth
The Unbelievable Truth.jpg
Poster
Directed by Hal Hartley
Written byHal Hartley
Produced byHal Hartley
Bruce Weiss
Jerome Brownstein
Starring Adrienne Shelly
Robert Burke
Cinematography Michael Spiller
Edited byHal Hartley
Music by Jim Coleman
Production
companies
Possible Films
Action Features
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000 [1]
(estimated)
Box office$546,541

The Unbelievable Truth is a 1989 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley [2] and starring Adrienne Shelly and Robert Burke. It tells the story of Audry, who dumps her high-school boyfriend and becomes a successful fashion model, but all along is in love with a mysterious man called Josh, released after conviction for manslaughter. He, after his experiences, is uncomfortable with relationships, but learns that he cannot stay an observer of life and must fight to win her. The film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in 1990 at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with Trust (1990) and Simple Men (1992), it is Hartley's first feature film and the first part of "Long Island trilogy" retrospectively. [3]

Contents

Plot

Back from prison to a small community on Long Island comes Josh, a sober young man whose crimes most cannot remember exactly, and finds a job at Vic's auto repair shop. Vic's daughter Audry falls instantly in love with him, only to be rejected when she declares her feelings because he is not ready for such a relationship and fears Vic's reaction. In revenge, she gives up the place she has won at Harvard and goes off to New York to be a photographic model, appearing first in lingerie and then nude.

Horrified, her parents send the reliable Josh off to the city to reclaim her, but he gives up in disgust when he finds she is living with her agent. Returning home, he meets the daughter of the man he is supposed to have killed in a struggle, who says she can testify that he is innocent. Audry, overjoyed that Josh has re-entered her life, gives her money-obsessed father all her earnings from modeling and again offers herself to Josh, who this time is overjoyed too.

Cast

Production

For the making of this film, his feature directorial debut, Hal Hartley said he was influenced by European art films, particularly those of Jean-Luc Godard, as well as by Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. [4]

Reception

The Unbelievable Truth received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 100% rating based on reviews from 10 critics. [5] On Metacritic, it has a score of 67 out of 100. [6] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars. [7]

Box office

The film grossed $546,541 on a budget of an estimated $75,000.

Home video

The region 1 DVD was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment on March 11, 2001, but it has been discontinued. [8] The DVD contained the film's trailer and an interview with Hartley. Possible Films, Hal Hartley's company, released a 20th Anniversary DVD on October 19, 2010. [9] Olive Films released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on May 14, 2013. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Truly, Madly, Deeply</i> (film) 1990 British film

Truly, Madly, Deeply is a 1990 British fantasy drama film made for the BBC's Screen Two series, by BBC Films, Lionheart and Winston Pictures. The film, written and directed by Anthony Minghella, stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.

Hal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue.

<i>Bound</i> (1996 film) 1996 American film by the Wachowskis

Bound is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by the Wachowskis in their feature film directorial debut. Violet, who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar, enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky, and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of Mafia money.

<i>Shallow Hal</i> 2001 film by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Shallow Hal is a 2001 American romantic comedy film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black about a man who falls in love with a 300-pound woman after being hypnotized into only seeing a person's inner beauty. Directed by the Farrelly brothers, it was filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina as well as Sterling and Princeton, Massachusetts at Wachusett Mountain. The supporting cast features Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, and Susan Ward. Shallow Hal was released in theaters on November 9, 2001 by 20th Century Fox, and grossed $141 million against a $40 million budget.

<i>Monsoon Wedding</i> 2001 film by Mira Nair

Monsoon Wedding is a 2001 comedy-drama film directed by Mira Nair, written by Sabrina Dhawan, and starring Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shah and Vasundhara Das. The story depicts romantic entanglements during a traditional Punjabi Hindu wedding in Delhi. Dhawan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in a week while in Columbia University's MFA film program. Although set entirely in New Delhi, it was internationally co-produced between companies in India, the United States, Italy, France and Germany.

<i>Sirens</i> (1994 film) 1994 Australian-British film

Sirens is a 1994 film, based on the life of artist Norman Lindsay, written and directed by John Duigan and set in Australia during the interwar period.

<i>Wicker Park</i> (film) 2004 American film directed by Paul McGuigan

Wicker Park is a 2004 American romantic thriller drama film directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne, Diane Kruger and Matthew Lillard. It is a remake of the 1996 French film L'Appartement, which in turn is loosely based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was nominated for the Grand Prix at the Montreal World Film Festival, the city in which the film was partially filmed.

<i>O</i> (film) 2001 American romantic drama film by Tim Blake Nelson

O is a 2001 American romantic thriller film, and a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, set in an American high school. It stars Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett. It was directed by Tim Blake Nelson and written by Brad Kaaya. The film contains many different styles of music, ranging from rap to opera. It was filmed in Charleston, South Carolina in the spring of 1999. Originally intended for release for October 17, 1999, it was shelved following the Columbine High School massacre; O was finally released on August 31, 2001. The film grossed $16 million at the United States box office, which was seen by distributor Lions Gate Films as a "box office success".

<i>The Others</i> (2001 film) Film by Alejandro Amenábar

The Others is a 2001 English-language Spanish gothic supernatural psychological horror film written, directed, and scored by Alejandro Amenábar. It stars Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Alakina Mann and James Bentley. Set in 1945 on the Channel Island of Jersey, it focuses on a woman and her two young photosensitive children who experience supernatural phenomena in their large manor after the arrival of three new servants.

<i>Snow Day</i> (2000 film) 2000 American comedy film by Chris Koch

Snow Day is a 2000 American comedy film directed by Chris Koch, written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, and produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. It stars Chris Elliott, Mark Webber, Jean Smart, and Chevy Chase with supporting roles by Schuyler Fisk, Pam Grier, Zena Grey, Josh Peck, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and David Paetkau. The film premiered on January 29, 2000, and was theatrically released on February 11, 2000. It takes place during the events of a record snow day in upstate New York, depicting various subplots including a group of kids planning to thwart a snowplow driver in an attempt to get a second snow day. This is the first of two films to star both Josh Peck and Zena Grey, the other being Max Keeble's Big Move, released the following year.

<i>The Last Days of Disco</i> 1998 film by Whit Stillman

The Last Days of Disco is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman, and loosely based on his travels and experiences in various nightclubs in Manhattan, including Studio 54. Starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, the film follows a group of Ivy League and Hampshire College graduates falling in and out of love in the disco scene of New York City in the early 1980s.

<i>The Comfort of Strangers</i> (film) 1990 Italian film

The Comfort of Strangers is a 1990 psychological thriller film directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, and Helen Mirren. The screenplay by Harold Pinter was adapted from the 1981 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrienne Shelly</span> American actress (1966–2006)

Adrienne Levine, better known by the stage name Adrienne Shelly, was an American actress, film director and screenwriter. She became known for roles in independent films such as Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). She wrote, co-starred in, and directed the 2007 posthumously-released film Waitress which later became a Broadway show.

<i>Trust</i> (1990 film) 1990 American romantic comedy by Hal Hartley

Trust is a 1990 American romantic black comedy film written and directed by Hal Hartley and starring Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan. Two young misfits, both in emotional shock, meet in a Long Island town and through trials develop a platonic relationship based on mutual admiration, respect and trust.

<i>Flirt</i> (1995 film) 1995 film by Hal Hartley

Flirt is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley and produced by Good Machine.

<i>No Such Thing</i> (film) 2001 film by Hal Hartley

No Such Thing is a 2001 supernatural drama film directed by Hal Hartley. It tells the story of Beatrice, a journalist whose fiancé is killed by a monster in Iceland. The story is based very loosely on the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the May 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

"How to Talk to Girls at Parties" is a science fiction short story written in 2006 by Neil Gaiman.

<i>Solaris</i> (1972 film) 1972 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Solaris is a 1972 Soviet science fiction drama film based on Stanisław Lem's 1961 novel of the same title. The film was co-written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and stars Donatas Banionis and Natalya Bondarchuk. The electronic music score was performed by Eduard Artemyev and features a composition by J.S. Bach as its main theme. The plot centers on a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris, where a scientific mission has stalled because the skeleton crew of three scientists have fallen into emotional crises. Psychologist Kris Kelvin (Banionis) travels to the station to evaluate the situation, only to encounter the same mysterious phenomena as the others.

<i>Postcards from the Edge</i> (film) 1990 film by Mike Nichols

Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title. The film stars Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid.

<i>Patrick</i> (2013 film) Australian film directed by Mark Hartley

Patrick is a 2013 Australian supernatural horror film directed by Mark Hartley and a remake of the 1978 film of the same name. It had its world premiere on 27 July 2013 at the Melbourne International Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release on 14 March 2014, followed by a DVD release the following month. Its Canadian theatrical premiere was at the Lost Episode Festival Toronto on 5 July 2014.

References

  1. Wood, Gaby (July 15, 2007). "The unbelievable truth". The Guardian . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  2. The Criterion Channel’s September 2023 Lineup|Current|The Criterion Collection
  3. The Cinema of Hal Hartley: Place, Cultural Identity and Indie Authorship - Sebastian Christopher Manley - Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia, School of Film and Television Studies - June 2011
  4. Wood, Jason (2004). 100 American Independent Films. London: BFI. pp. 229–231. ISBN   978-1-84-457005-8 . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  5. "The Unbelievable Truth (1990)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  6. "The Unbelievable Truth Review". Metacritic. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  7. Ebert, Roger (August 3, 1990). "The Unbelievable Truth movie review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  8. "The Unbelievable Truth - Releases". AllMovie . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  9. "The Unbelievable Truth 20th Anniversary DVD". Archived from the original on October 25, 2010.
  10. McQuain, Christopher (May 30, 2013). "The Unbelievable Truth". DVDTalk.com. Retrieved December 20, 2022.