SXSW Film Reviews

A NY Thing

A French sex comedy of sorts (though spoken largely in English), A NY Thing follows writer Antoine (Zaccaï) as he follows a girl, Alice (Valette), from Paris to New York, where she reunites with her boyfriend (Moss-Bachrach) and his quirky roommate, Tamera (Gerwig), who in turn crushes hard on the sexy/scruffy Frenchman, now posing as Alice's pal John. That's John for John Lennon, whose beyond-the-grave presence inflects the film with a magical realist bent that one imagines worked better on the page than in practice. You'd be hard-pressed to find four easier-on-the-eyes actors than A NY Thing's mixed doubles (two Frenchies, two Yanks), and they all deliver nuanced, engaging performances, but cinematographer Isabelle Dumas gives them a run for their money in the looks department. Granted, she's working with magic-hour Manhattan, but her moody, romantic camerawork is as compelling and crucial a character as any of A NY Thing's love-struck leads.