A NY Thing

Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions
D: Olivier Lécot; with Jonathan Zaccaï, Fanny Valette, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Greta Gerwig

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.

Wednesday, March 17, 9pm, Ritz 2

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...