By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Hal Hartley
Starring: Bill Sage | Sabrina Lloyd | Tatiana Abracos
Country: united_states
Year: 2005
Running time: 84
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388973/combined
Michael says: “I attended Hal Hartley’s THE GIRL FROM MONDAY with much anticipation, being such a fan of the director’s
deadpan wit, and wry observations on relationships. Hartley goes the science fiction route in MONDAY to tell the story of a society in our near future where sex appeal is one of the highest commodities in the marketplace. Monday is a planet orbiting a star light years away from Earth, and one of its inhabitants arrives here, wraps its consciousness in a body, and joins the human race in search of one of its own kind who came to Earth years prior and has become so human that he has not been able to return. As the girl from Monday searches for her fellow alien, Hartley takes a hard look at the direction our society is headed with regard to commercialism and marketing. While Hartley is in good form with his themes and dialogue, this exposition-heavy film is more of an extended idea rather than a fully-realized story. It’s gorgeously shot though, and if you’re a Hartley fan, it’s recommended. 3.5 cats
“Edie Falco puts in a terrifically funny cameo as a judge. Hartley fans know that Falco got her start in his early films THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH and TRUST. ”
Chris says: “I’ve always felt a little ambivalent about Hal Hartley’s work. On one hand, I marvel at the fact that he’s remained
so fiercely independent and distinctive; on the other, I tend to cringe a little whenever confronted with such stylized dialogue and quirkiness for the sake of being quirky.
“So, I was surprised at how much I actually liked this one. The first twelve minutes are oblique, confounding and almost off-putting, although in the Q and A with the director following the Brattle screening, he makes a good case for why that was. From there, however, THE GIRL FROM MONDAY settles into a good, compelling groove, one far less jarring and uneven than his last feature, NO SUCH THING. It follows a typically hard-boiled Hartley hero, Jack (Bill Sage) in the throes of a dystopian society of faceless conglomerates, sex as the ultimate commodity, and a sinister plan to put ‘soda pop in the schools.'”
“Yes, it’s a little pretentious, but also incredibly funny, always beautiful, and in a few instances, almost poignant. If the theories bandied about here don’t exactly cohere, he does make poetry out of digital video’s limitations. 3.5 cats”
Amanda says: “I was riveted by the film when I saw it presented by Hartley Friday night. I kept thinking what interesting social commentary he was making–particularly in the areas of public school education (anyone seen the Massachusetts budget cuts these days? Yikes!) I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of convicts being sentenced to public school ‘teaching’ while students were occupied in virtual ‘learning.’ I would lean more towards 4.5 cats (And I didn’t even know who Hal Hartley was until I stumbled into HENRY FOOL one day in Harvard Sq)”