2 Movies Starring Arnold Barkus

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Caveh is a neurotic film student who has recently begun therapy. His therapist tells him that his biggest problem is that he sees everything in black and white and that what he needs to do is to learn to dwell with uncertainty. Caveh is nothing if not sincere and so he resolves to try his best to change. He meets Erin, an art student, in an elevator and feels immediately attracted to her. But instead of engaging in his usual "kamikaze" tactics, he decides to try to "not push her". He pursues this tactic to the point of near absurdity and finds himself increasingly befuddled and in pain. But a pattern starts to emerge; every time he is about to give up, some hope-inducing thing happens which sets the wheels of courtship in motion again. But her attitude is consistently and bafflingly inscrutable. A rival appears and then disappears. What does it all mean? Caveh wants to know, but keeps hitting his head against the same wall. Finally he abandons his therapist's advice and follows his own intuition. He doesn't get what he was hoping for, but gets something more precious and ultimately far more real.

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This film concerns two mysterious characters who meet on a Sunday in Queens. Madeleine the most unsettling creature of that name since "Vertigo" is a middle-aged, moderately successful actress. Oliver/Matthew is either a homeless man or a famous film director or both. Madeleine hails him on the street as the latter, launching a bizarre chain of events that includes a conversation in a diner, a very unromantic sexual encounter, the arrival of Madeleine's odd husband and unsuspecting daughter, and a child's birthday party. The film also compassionately tracks the daily rounds of Oliver/Matthew's fellow denizens of the homeless shelter, some of whom will be recognizable to New York audiences.