LIPSTIKKA
Director: Jonathan Sagall
Cast: Clara Khoury, Nataly Attiya, Daniel Caltagirone, Moran Rosenblatt, Ziv Weiner
Country: Israel / United Kingdom

The story of two Palestinian refugees (one Christian and one Muslim) and their tumultuous, tortured relationship over 30 years, this provocative picture almost works. Set in both present day London and Ramallah in the late 1980s, the story is told in snatches and grabs. The principal character and occasional narrator is Lara (Clara Khoury), a repressed alcoholic living a lie as a housewife to a man she doesn’t love in a great big sterile home in suburban London. The morning after her birthday, she is visited by her old lover Inam (Nataly Attiya), and memories of their troubled childhood start to flood to the surface. In particular, Lara recalls the night the two of them slipped past the checkpoint to see a film and came across two young male Israeli soldiers, after which, things got complicated. But, what really happened that night?

Drawn out to the Meatpacking District to catch the Postelles at the Ted Baker store, I found myself whirling around every which way to try and catch what was going on in each storefront. The Postelles, went on fashionably later than 7:30, but played through a few songs, including a cover of “Hound Dog”, while guests drank up mojitos. The Puma store was decked out with a ping pong table and a New York pro around to play some rounds.

New Yorkers really go all out getting supermodels and mega makeup brands out on the streets to promote apparel and give out free goods. There was even an upstart company shouting their brand name, waving placards and provoking the police. But can anyone explain why there were also snack food promotions?!

THINK OF ME
Director: Bryan Wizemann
Cast: Lauren Ambrose, Audrey Scott, Dylan Baker, Penelope Ann Miller, Adina Porter, David Conrad
Country: USA

Think of Me (Bryan Wizemann)
Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) gives a breakout film performance as a single mother struggling to make ends meet in seedy Las Vegas. Working two jobs while trying to wrestle child support out of her ex-, slipping out for hits of meth from her upstairs neighbour, having anonymous sex with the guys she picks up at the local strip bar (and then awkwardly suggesting they could like maybe pay her a hundred bucks?), and generally being a terrible mother to her already troubled eight-year old daughter, Ambrose plays a young woman caught up in intractable problems. Plus, she is completely alone.

THE LONELIEST PLANET
Director: Julia Loktev
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, Bidzina Gujabidze
Country: USA / Germany

The kind of movie that is much more fun to talk about than to watch (at least for me), this archetypal art house film follows two mostly non-verbal tourists as they hike through the Caucuses under mostly overcast skies. Their local guide, slightly more loquacious, prattles on from time to time, offering random (sometimes plainly fabricated) bits of information.

MY WORST NIGHTMARE
Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde, André Dussollier, Virginie Efira
Country: France / Belgium

Agathe (the iconic Isabelle Huppert) is a cold, distant woman of a certain age. Dictatorial and unfriendly at home, and an impassable tyrant at work, Agathe flits about her life with confidence and poise but little human energy. She doesn’t speak with people; she makes speeches. Her much older husband (André Dussollier) deals with her lack of warmth with a healthy shot of resignation. His marriage is sexless and dull, but it’s no big deal once you’ve given up caring about such things, right?