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This movie has 90s independent style written all over it. It's unmistakable. It's a black and white, grainy and naturalistic portrait of some characters out of their luck in the world of Hollywood movies, based exclusively on dialogues and performances. It's clearly inspired by "Clerks", Jarmusch's films, "Smoke" and ultimately by Cassavetes and Robert Altman. But even when it plays some familiar tunes, the result is quite good, with most of the actors and stories being engaging enough and the feeling that Whitaker (an actor that only directed this movie) put some personal truths in it.

Robert Wise is one of the all-time greatest directors that is not very often recognised as such. Showing in every film a refined storytelling technique (you can clearly see that before being a director he was one of the greatest editors in the movie business, with impressive credits like "Citizen Kane"), but also a chameleonic adaptation to every genre (he has masterpieces in horror, Sci-Fi, drama, musicals...). This gritty boxing drama / film noir is not only one of the early movies in which the action happens in real time, but its influence is undeniebale in the two later classics, "Raging Bull" and "Rocky", with impeccably filmed boxing matches. Wonderful.

Carax movies are not for everyone, but are clearly what cinema as an art needs to keep growing. You have the blockbusters, the standard genre constructed and script dependant movies and then you have the ones that try to do something different with the filmic language. The narrative power of Carax here is breathtaking and his union with Sparks to create a modern musical that is half "Phantom of the Paradise" and half "Dancer in the Dark" is a glorious one, full of emotion and risks. Also, Adam Driver, after his "Star Wars" journey, seems determined to leave behind a brave and rich filmography.