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This film is actually three short films, only connected by the fact that they take place in New York City. So I will comment on them individually.The first short, 'Life Lessons', is directed by Martin Scorsese and is about Lionel Dobie, an artist (Nick Nolte) whos girlfriend Paulette (Rosanna Arquette) dumps him as a lover, yet stays in his atelier to live. Nolte, from the first scene, portrays a neurotic, 'typical' New York abstract painter, complete with discrete little temper tantrums about deadlines. He seems balanced and normal. But his painting is going nowhere. So he drives to the airport to pick up his girlfriend, and she discloses to him that she is leaving him and going home to her brother. She fell for a stand-up comedian (played by Steve Buschemi - his comedy scene is great because it's bad humour in a stunning setting) but he dumped her the day after. But, this fling flung her out of her comfortable relationship with Lionel (where we get the image that she was never happy anyway) and now she's going home. Lionel stays cooler as you would expect and convinces her to stay with him, no strings attached, for her sake. We believe him, at this stage.Back at the atelier, however, the reality of this new relationship starts to shine through. Paulette doesn't like Lionel very much and has a real identity problem (you get the impression that she paints just because Lionel does), but Lionel appears more and more obsessed - not so much with Paulette herself, but with the company. He percieves Paulette as his property and becomes ragingly jealous when she brings guys home. Paulette, stuck in his atelier, teases him by dressing provocatively and asking him questions like 'Do you love me? - Then prove it by...'. Because of Paulette not being within his grasp, Lionel goes down the tubes. It's not love, in my opinion. It's pride.But, as Lionel's real world fades and collapses, his painting grows and changes and comes to life. The moment his own life with Paulette ends, the life of his painting begins.It's sort of a heavy story in the way that you really have to concentrate and suss out the character's motives. It's not light 'E.R.'-type drama, but it's a lot more fulfilling.And so we are led into 'Life without Zoe', directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It's about a 12-year-old girl and her little life. If Martin Scorsese had stayed in the director's chair for this segment too, we could have had a re-run of 'Taxi Driver', where the 12-year old was a prostitute and the story was rough, but excellent. Instead, the 12-year-old is a rich Vada Sultenfuss, and the story is saccharine and empty. This middle film is destined to be the one people forget. For one thing, there is no narrative drive in the story as far as I can see - there is a robbery which is pretty pointless, there is a rich little boy who has a costume party, and there's the parents. While there are a few charming qualities - that the parents act childishly and their child mothers them; that the costume party is ludicrously lavish to the extent of having violinists and flambeed whatever at the baby's table - this segment is a children's movie. Nothing more, nothing less. Kids would get a kick out of seeing the wealth and possibilites of the kids and the fun of the party, but that's about it. Bad acting is acceptable in children - and abundant here - but it's also present in the adult performances. Some loser says after the robbery 'Wow if I could only hold on to that sense memory I'd be head of my acting class'. You've got a long way to go, buddy...And so it's time for 'Oedipus Wrecks' by Woody Allen. This is the funny one. In fact it's so wonderfully absurd that I won't spoil it by telling you much about it. Only that Woody Allen surprisingly plays a neurotic New Yorker, and this time he is embarrased because his mother is always on his back and bothering him. The development of this story is just so strange and funny that I'll let you find out about it for yourself. It's not Woody at his best, but it's still funny.Altogether, the segments I would rate 7,4,7 giving an average of 6.
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