Flirt

Hal Hartley's films have long featured nuanced speech patterns; his characters often seem to be speaking in spite of each other rather than at or to one another. It's a stylised approach to film making that suits the quirky director and his committed, underground cadre of fans; in Flirt, he takes it to another level. Here, the same story unfolds three different times: a shifty lover tries to decide which partner to stay with, and ends up with a gunshot to the face. Shifting between locations, languages and sexual preferences--but keeping the dialogue more or less static--Hartley's film makes for an interesting experiment, but of interest to whom? Fans will appreciate the final sequence most, which features the director in a rare on-screen role. --Randy Silver