SXSW Film Reviews

I Love Your Work

Narrative Feature Competition, U.S. Premiere

Giovanni Ribisi can convey more emotion using only his nostrils than most actors can with their whole bodies. In I Love Your Work, it's Ribisi's nose, not the familiar dodgy nervousness in his eyes, that serves as the window to this damaged character's soul: There, you'll find the clues that Gray Evans, hotshot Hollywood superstar, is actually alcoholic, insecure, and possibly an off-camera cokehead. Celebrity ain't all it's cracked up to be, but rarely has la vita looked less dolce than it does in Goldberg's cautionary tale, in which a tempestuous Hollywood marriage (Potente plays Gray's wife) becomes both tabloid fodder and stalker bait. For Gray's fans, the grass is greener on the famous side of the fence. But Goldberg shows the world from Gray's perspective, where envy for a more genuine life beyond the reach of paparazzi flashbulbs inevitably leads to the movie's bizarre Sunset Boulevard-style climax.

(Millennium, March 19, 7pm)