Ned Rifle

I probably should have seen the first two in this trilogy first, since there are a lot of plot references to them, but...I didn't, and I probably won't. Because I've already seen the end result, see. This is a textbook definition of an offbeat movie, and it hits much more often than it misses. Aubrey Plaza really nails it - if you're even a slight fan of her work, you just gotta see her in this one. Everyone else is pretty good as well, but I was focused more on Ms. Plaza.

What was the point of this film? I was such a big Hal Hartley fan. Those early films were great and had so much promise. 'The Unbelievable Truth' - still a fav. The other early ones, of their time but still lots to enjoy. Henry Foole was good, everything since has been so awful... don't know what happened to Hartley the writer except that he had his success and then had nothing left to say. For him to have so little ideas so as to take characters from an old film (Hal Hartley), which wasn't half bad, and have them drive around to no plot and with nothing to say was really sad. The semi-nudity wasn't worth it either. I turned it off with 2 minutes left to go, I didn't care what the ending was or what profound facial expression the characters would stare into the distance with. I'll try to forget this, enjoy the oldies, and I swear.. after waiting a long time to see this one, I'll never waste my time on a new Hal film again!

I just now learned this is a follow-up to other films, I think it works perfectly fine on its own. It´s lightning fast, a pure script film. There are no transitions shots whatsoever as if the rule on the filming set was "just say your line, hit the mark and let´s move on to the next scene". It certainly cuts the BS. Every scene, every line of dialogue is there for a good reason. The film has nice rhythm and a strong sense of purpose. The humor is dry and quick, symbolism is timely. This film has many virtues, I would recommend it specially to aspiring film makers, as it does much with very little. There are some bits of bad acting, as you could expect, but somehow it isn´t an issue, the script keeps it interesting. There are eloquent speeches with big words but it´s all not that pretentious, it´s quite simple, really. Good stuff

Ned Rifle ends the Henry Fool trilogy in classic Hal Hartley style, with damaged people unable to connect or to explain themselves.

This was a relief after Fay Grimm, the Henry Fool sequel that occurred during Hartley's dalliance with genre storytelling, something he failed to ever get a handle on.

The movie begins as a revenge tale, with Henry's son deciding to hunt down and kill his father for ruining his imprisoned mother's life. Along the way he joins up with a mysterious and sexy scholar with a plan of her own.

That description makes it sounds like a genre film after all, and in a way this movie ably bridges classic Hartley with genre Hartley.

The original cast is still there and is excellent, with a slightly mad Henry and a disillusioned Simon. New to the trilogy is Aubrey Plaza as the mystery woman. Plaza is a perfect Harley actor able to work within his peculiarly affectless emotionalism.

This movie is what I expect from Hartley; quirky humor, opaque characters, complex motives, and within that more emotion than one might expect. While it's not quite up to the level of early Hartley films like Trust or Surviving desire, it definitely scratches the Hartley itch.

"Decisive, committed, admittedly obscure work indifferent to mainstream approval and unafraid of confrontation with moral and aesthetic absolutes, this, more than you might imagine, is what keeps people from jumping out windows and under trains."

The best of the trilogy for me, playing out the story of the main characters in a coherent way with all that spy nonsense from Fay Grim dropped, and featuring not only Parker Posey but Aubrey Plaza. There are little jabs at religion, commercialism, and university politics, but for the most part the satire is muted in favor of the melodrama - both Henry Fool's son Ned Rifle (Liam Aiken) and the girl he raped at 13 (Plaza) have grown up and are seeking him out for revenge. I have to say though, it was disturbing to hear Plaza's character call the incident from her childhood as the best night of her life, and the sequence of events leading up to the ending weren't all that satisfying.