Powerful

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

OK, OK... that pun is pretty lame I admit, but no worse than some of the attempts at humor in this film. Which is actually not to say that this film is completely terrible. It isn't, not by a long shot. But it just isn't that good either. I actually enjoyed Amos Kollek's earlier film "Fiona" quite a bit (and I would still be very interesting in seeing his film "Sue"), but this was really nothing like that gritty, slice-of-life, documentary-style film. This was more of a quirky, almost sitcom-ish comedy. To Kollek's credit, this predates the whole quirky indie trend by a few years, so it doesn't quite have the same pre-meditated feel as, say, "Me and You and Everyone We Know", however it has a lot of the same problems as that film did. None of the characters seem at all real, and everything they do or say feels completely scripted to be "witty" or "quirky" (and is only sporadically funny, although at least it is, a little). The whole film gives off a decidedly no-budget feel, with very primitive camera work and often amateurish acting (despite the presence of Louise Lasser), which in and of itself isn't bad, since at least it doesn't have the studio gloss of most recent similarly-minded pseudo-indie films. If anything, i give the film a little more credit than it probably deserves, just for having such a run-and-gun, no-budget feel. I did like the choppy, rough editing, for purely aesthetic reasons. Also it deserves some credit for not having too much of a plot (except towards the end), and a good unhurried pace.

I saw this movie last night on TV, and found it refreshing, personally inspiring, despite the negative comments others have written about it.The characters redeemed themselves by sticking with what they thought they believed in, and/or went after what they thought was important to them, despite how impossible those goals seemed.Much as Bella has chosen her waitress job, various characters meet impediments which cause them to choose one way or the other. At the end, you realize how true to themselves they really were.The quirky personalities made the characters more real to me. I was able to envelop myself totally in this movie, forget all about myself, my troubles, my own world, despite some loose ends and unnatural jumps in the stories. Life's like that. These people seemed real to me, even when I knew they weren't.The movie made me happy in general, happy for the characters' successes, and aware that it was a fairy tale colored a bit by some of life's inevitable disappointments. The characters were not foolish, just human. Because most of their lives were not in the movie, it seemed somewhat like a loosely structured play.Rough, unpolished, quirky, non-Hollywood romances, people getting by, people looking for the "right" person to love them.....7.5 points from me

This film ran through the art house circuit so quickly most people missed it, and that's too bad. Now it's finally beginning to show up on cable, and I hope it gets a larger audience. Amos Kollek's other films are also hard to come by in the U.S. -- I know I'D like to see more of them, after having seen this one, but this seems to have the lightest touch, from what I can tell.Among the many things it has going for it, is the incomparable Anna Thomson (Levine), a character actor I've followed since her days in the rep company of the original Tracy Ullmann Show on Fox television, through her unforgettable role in Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN, to this interesting role of Bela.Magical Realism is a kind of sub-genre I always enjoy, and when it plays against the gritty, wonderful city of New York (my home town), I sit up and take notice. This is the kind of dark underbelly of one of my favorite (also underappreciated) TV shows, Jay Tarses' "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd." If you knew and liked that, and can do with something darker and more sexually explicit, you'll probably like this.Bela triumphs, and so do her strange friends, in this pretty unique film, which is slow paced, as slice-of-life character studies are, so be prepared for that. If you tend to criticize films for being "too slow" or not having enough plot, you might not like this, but if you are happy examining characters and living with great dialogue and situations, hang in there. If you like "Smoke" or "Blue in the Face," you'll probably love this.

As Robert Altman's Shortcuts this film is about different people with different linked stories. This film from Amos Kollek belongs to the new independent American cinema wave: fresh, clear and very direct.Bella is an insecure girl that works in a fast food restaurant with a tremendous need of love. Bella is very fragile so fragile that walks with the stiletto heels in order to see things with a panoramic and upper position view but with the fragility, detachment and embarrassment of a teenager. She has a periodical love-making relationship with a married man.Three elder men, one looking for a female friend through a lonely heart advertisement, getting disappointed when the lady realizes that he has never made love in his life. The other two, very pathetic, talking and chatting about unlikely sex all the time. The mature woman stresses the fact that "merchandise is no longer valid" (at that age). The love happiness and kindness of elder people has reminded to me the Marco Ferreri's film: "La Casa del Sorriso".All these stories that are linked by two common factors: loneliness and lack of love. The film has also to be seen not only for its cleverness but also to understand that in America not only commercial films are being produced.Rating: 6/10