When Lauren disappears from a night club and doesn’t return home the next morning, her mother, Michelle, to avoid publicity and a scandal, decides to search for her missing daughter. Michelle soon discovers that her daughter might have been part of a pornographic snuff ring that lures young girls to make their money. Fearing for Lauren’s safety, Michelle hires the help of a store employee to find her daughter. But finding Lauren soon becomes an impossible task as no one really cares about missing girls or a mother’s lover for her baby. In order to find her daughter, Michelle must enter into the darkest and most shocking areas of the industry. Michelle will go anywhere and do anything to find her baby girl. . . How far will you go?
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.
香港红灯区,人头攒动,夜夜笙歌,时尚男女云集这里饮酒作乐,享受虚妄的人生和肉体欢愉。这片土地,自然也成为黑帮组织垂涎欲滴的肥肉。此前,洪英老大飞雄在此一手遮天,不可一世,但是来自福建的大圈仔野心勃勃,开始入侵红灯区。福建帮凶狠异常,其头目之一子弹更是残忍无情。 刀仔(吴镇宇 饰)隶属于洪英,整天打牌消磨时光。恐龙(张耀扬 饰)是个不入流的古惑仔,终日带着几个小弟闲逛,以成为刀神为目标。Dummy(张达明 饰)则是反黑组一名谨小慎微的警察。他们原本过着平淡自在的生活,但洪英和福建帮的紧张气氛达到顶点,这群小人物也不可避免地卷入其中……