Meanwhile

Hal Hartley's new film Meanwhile concerns Joe Fulton, a man who can do anything from fixing your sink to arranging international financing for a construction project. He produces online advertising and he's written a big fat novel. He's also a pretty good drummer. But success eludes him. For Joe can't keep himself from fixing other people's problems. His own ambitions are constantly interrupted by his willingness and ability to go out of his way for others. "Meanwhile" is a riveting return to the intimate philosophical storytelling that characterizes Hartley’s cinema in the era of The Unbelievable Truth (1989), Trust (1990), Simple Men (1992), and Amateur (1994). It doesn’t drag its coattails in the romantic glory of those films, however, being fully attuned to the harsh realities of 21st century survival.