User reviews

Writer and director Rebecca Miller(daughter of legendary playwright Arthur) patches together three stories of three different women for this film and the movie itself is quite an intriguing curiosity for it.

Delia(Kyra Sedgwick,familiar yet still distinctive here)is an abused housewife and mother who's only known really one thing about herself-her sexuality-and has to find a way out of her sad,low-esteemed predicament,while wondering if she should use her sexuality or not; Greta(Parker Posey,for whom the type of roles she could inhabit are practically limitless) is a career-driven woman whose marriage is peaceful but uninspiring; and Paula(Fairuza Balk,whose angry eyes and wild visage is an ironic contrast to the scared character she's playing),has escaped a horrifying accident and now aids a runaway teen,all the while mindful of the fact that she's just learned she's pregnant.

I must say I was quite pleased with elements of the movie:the narration,the anthology of it and,of course,the actors,who all are very fine here. But I suppose what left me dry here was the way these stories played out. I will not go into any detail so as to inadvertently throw out spoilers,but it to me felt like these stories were resolved in ways that seemed only evident to the writer herself. I read one reviewer describe these tales as sorts of "Women's lib" stories,and that may be true,and not being a woman myself and certainly not a feminist,I suppose if these endings seemed lost on me,well,that's my problem I suppose.

Not a movie for those who absolutely NEED their films to have a sort of set,rising-plot/climax/denouement model in order to digest their usage of 90 min to 2 hours of time,but I suspect that the film's creator doesn't really care about that. She set out to portray three ordinary yet intriguing characters and,for the most part,I feel like she succeeded.

Personal Velocity (2002)

Literally three short movies that have a similar sense of crisis for the leading woman, but which set up mostly contrasts and comparisons. It's dramatic, interesting, sometimes difficult emotional stuff. The intentions are superb, and the acting focused and believable. In all, as a low-budget indie production, this has seriousness and depth.

It also is awkward enough in its filming to keep it from quite taking off, or letting you get fully absorbed. At first the very simple (and often imperfect) camera-work seems like smart stylizing, but then it's clear it's also an issue of making do with limitations. There are even moments that shift to a series of still frames in sequence, which feels like artistic invention until you realize it's not really contributing to the larger feeling of things.

This isn't quite a nitpick, but it does counterbalance the rawness of the acting, rather than enhance it.

The three stories are similar in the sense the woman are forced to survive in relationships, and in worlds, that are often hostile and confusing. And what's great is how they all do, in fact survive. As bad, or as uncertain, as their lives get, there is finally that pulling up by the bootstraps and realizing that better things are possible.

You'll hardly think this is the case in the first of the three stories, as the leading woman is portrayed as very strong and yet brutally weaker than her crazed husband. This shift is so shocking it might make some viewers quit the movie. But there is redemption even in this story. And in the second story, which is partly about greed and ambition, the tone changes dramatically, moving from a very poor to a very rich situation. The third story crosses other lines and solidifies the larger intention of the movie as a set of comparable, if unrelated, scenarios.

It's good stuff, and you want mostly to see the director (and screenwriter) Rebecca Miller (who also did "Regarding Henry") continue to make really interesting movies.

Personal Velocity is about these three woman who are each faced to make a big decision. In the first story there is Delia(Kyra Sedgwick)who gets constantly beaten up by her abusive husband and even though she loves him she takes her children and leaves him. In the second story there is Greta(Parker Posey)a woman with a successful career and a nice loving husband but she isn't happy and satisfied inside and finds herself constantly cheating on him. Finally, in the third story there is Paula(Fairuza Balk)a woman that has ran away from home and picks up a abused young hitchhiker. Okay, i get it, this story is all about these woman with some kind of problems but what exactly was this movie trying to say to it's audience, trying to teach us? What exactly was the point? The acting though was very powerful and strong by all three actresses. I would give Personal Velocity 6/10

I saw this film tonight at the First Annual Tribeca Film Festival and understood its success at Sundance. In short, this film is about the awakening of three different women in very different lives and circle around a news report of a shooting in Manhattan and an ensuing car accident. With the telling of each woman's tale, Miller uses a brilliant 'degree of relation' to the accident in order to develop an engaging and powerful film.

Delia casually watches the news report of the accident while waiting for the cook to bring up her next order in a small-town diner in upstate New York. Though the audience does not see a particularly unusual response that she has to it, we can imagine that her difficult circumstances allow her to relate to it on a level of shared human suffering.

Greta, who's story is told in a series of flashbacks, watches it on the morning news minutes before she has her epiphany about her failing marriage and the new turn that her life is taking as a prominent editor for a large Manhattan publishing house. Because it is the only scene in her story that takes place in the present time, the audience is left to wonder what sort of pivotal role the news report has played in her epiphany.

Finally, Paula's story brings the accident close to home as she is a witness to it. Her epiphany was a direct result of the accident since it was a near-death experience for her. She's not only shocked from the impact of it, but her struggle to explain it with cosmic signs allows her to transcend the accident and the events following it.

The performances were real, the direction was brilliant, and the common thread that ran through the intimate details of the women's awakenings flowed easily, despite the segmented telling of their tales. Miller's work in this film has inspired me to seek out her feature debut, _Angela_ as well.

These three separate stories of women at turning points in their lives are very much in the mode of the stories the New Yorker was putting out 15 years ago (and perhaps still are; I haven't read a New Yorker in years). You've got a character, you have some events, and then the story ends and you say, not a hell of a lot happened here. These are pure character studies, and I'm not a big fan of character studies. I had mixed feelings about the film making. At times it seemed effective, at times it seemed a little gimmicky, as in still shot montages, and some things I couldn't make up my mind about. One was the voiceover, inexplicably spoken by a man even though the words feel very female. My first reaction to the voiceover was, here's an author so in love with her words that she couldn't give them up when moving from novel to film. On the other hand, some of the interesting insights in the movie couldn't really be expressed without voiceover. On the other hand, that's always the case with movies, and filmmakers have learned to accept that you can't give all your characters' inner thoughts and that that's okay.

But my main problem was I was just kind of bored by it all. Everything was mildly interesting but nothing really caught me, although the third story felt the most effective.

My girlfriend seemed very moved a couple of times, but that's not hard to do.

Delia Shunt lives with her abusive father after her mother left. She became the school slut. Then she (Kyra Sedgwick) marries Kurt Wurtzle who turns out to be even more abusive than her father. She escapes with her three kids to live in the garage of a chubby former classmate who she helped on occasion.

Greta Herskowitz (Parker Posey) has been married to the boring Lee for four year as he seems to have lost his ambition over time. She's a cookbook editor. Hot writer Thavi Matola specifically asks for her to edit his next book. She starts an affair with him. Her father was a highly successful lawyer who divorced her Auschwitz-survivor mother for his young assistant. She stopped seeing her father.

Paula (Fairuza Balk) picks up a hitchhiker and drives back to her mother after running away two years ago. She's pregnant but she doesn't want to be. She almost got run over. She's not sure what to do until he discovers wounds on the hitchhiking kid.

There are three stories and the main connection is that there are three interesting female lead characters. I really like the first story. I like that she's so defensive that she comes off as mean-spirited. I would like for the story to expand and see her character evolve. It feels like a movie cut off after the first third. The second story is different. Although Greta's husband is suppose to be a dud, it would be nice to have a more compelling actor playing a dud. It's a fine short story but I'm not particularly interested in watching more of that relationship. The third story is similar to the first in that Paula is struggling. That's also an interesting short story. This time, I wish the kid is a more compelling actor. He could have broken this section wide open but he doesn't have the charisma. All three are interesting but I like the first one more.

(2002) Personal Velocity: Three Portraits DRAMA

Adapted from her own book, who is also credited as director Rebecca Miller, showcasing three stories from three different women of Delia (Kyra Sedgwick), Greta (Parker Posey) and Paula (Fairuza Balk) unrelated to one another intertwined with each other as a result of a car accident. As viewers witness the daily lives of our three main characters as Delia is struggling to get out an abusive relationship; Greta's dysfunctional relationship with her father and her well intention husband. And finally pregnant Paula assuming she can escape her problems by running away and goes on a road trip, along the way she picks up a hitchhiker.

This film, directed and written by Rebecca Miller, is a very satisfying experience for a new director who, here, is adapting her own material with a lot of relish and savoir-faire. There's a certain elegance in the way she treats her characters, always respectful, yet incisive. The only complain we could raise is the fact that each story is very short, so when we are still savoring each one, individually, Ms Miller, for reasons of timing, pulls them from under us.

The first story, Delia, shows a woman's worst fears in being married to a wife beater of the worst kind. She might have had dreams of making a happy home for her family, but her man has another thing in mind. This woman is a step above white trash. She tries hard to get herself together but everything keeps interfering with her independence. Played with gusto by Kyra Sedwick, Delia ends up as a waitress in order to support herself and the children. Her encounter with the bully from the restaurant is an exercise in how low they want her to go, but she comes out a winner.

The second story, Greta, is the best of the three. With the help of the great Parker Posey, this Greta comes out as the tough woman she wants everyone to think of her, but deep down, inside her, she's a vulnerable and frightened and unfulfilled over achiever. Ms Posey has never shown so many nuances in a performance that is so economic in the terms that are dictated by the length of the story. We get to know more about her than the narrator ever tells us. Every expression on this actress face is true. It's surprising what has been achieved here with the collaboration of the director and the player.

The last story, Paula, is the weakest. It's all about a very confused young woman who's out on the road to see her parents. She has very deep problems. Along the way she picks up a hitchhiker who stays with her through the trip. Paula is in a voyage of discovering, but little does she know that what she needs is what she has left at home: her Haitian man, who obviously cares a lot about her. As played by Fairuza Balk, she shows the turmoil in her head that only she can resolve.

We hope Miss Miller's next time out will be very soon because she's got a feel for getting inside her characters and finding angles they didn't even suspect of having.

"Personal Velocity" squanders its run time on a narrated flick which is chopped into thirds with no synergism, each delivering a powerful though brief character study of a woman with issues. With some serious talent on both sides of the lens, this flick is more likely an auteur pleaser than an audience pleaser. Recommended for fans of Sedgwick, Posey, and Balk and indie lovers. Best saved for broadcast. (B)

Note - According to the stats on this website, "Personal Velocity" is the antithesis of a "chick flick" scoring much lower with females than males.

Personal Velocity is one of the most beautifully shot digital films I have ever seen. The story is uniquely touching and develops a woman's perspective on life and love into a series of lives and events. The cinematography by Ellen Kuras defies the documentary roughness of the digital experience. Often the insert shots in the film are the most enthralling, focusing on small objects to extract the film's delicate beauty. Defying the need to connect the narratives, the film manages to create thematic connections, and forces the viewer to think more about the images and the characters' emotional journeys. One major drawback, the narrator is distracting, but if you can dismiss the intriguing insertion of a male voice over a female narrative, you can enjoy the interesting perspective on a woman's film. Wonderfully shot, well-written, worth-watching.

As the title indicates, this film is made up of three stories. The first is about Delia (Kyra Sedgwick), who has two children and is married to a man who we quickly find out abuses her. The film's male narrator fills us in on Delia's history as we see dream-like flashbacks to her in high school, where she was known for her ass and for being a slut. Back in the present day we see her bloodied from her husband's attack and needing to decide what to do.

The second story is about Greta (Parker Posey). She is a cookbook editor in New York City, and is married to a man who she is sure will never leave her. Her father (Ron Leibman) is a powerful lawyer who figuratively towers over both she and her husband.

The third story is about Paula (Fairuza Balk), who is pregnant and running away from a not very pleasant life when she picks up a hitchhiker.

There are similarities between the stories, most obviously that all are about women, and slightly less obviously that all have significant personal decisions to make in their lives. The stories also intersect, as all such films seem to be required to do, but this device doesn't really add much to the film. There are also differences between the women. Delia has two children, Paula is pregnant, while Greta is intentionally (presumably) childless, and is also much better off than the other two.

The looks of the three stories are very different. Greta's story, in the middle, is filmed very calmly and intellectually, and looks relatively conventional. Paula's story is filmed with enough nervous camera movement (SpastiCam™) to make people normally immune to motion sickness at the movies start to feel a bit queasy. Delia's story is also gritty, but with a more down-to-Earth feeling. Note that all three were filmed on digital video and transferred to film for exhibition. The middle story reminds you that digital video doesn't *have* to look bad, so the look of the other two stories is clearly intentional.

The film was written and directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of the playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis. On the whole it has some very good performances and is worth seeing, but it isn't a pleasant experience, and the short length of each segment prevents it from getting into as much depth as I might like.

I saw this at Talk Cinema in Palo Alto, CA on 11/23/2002. Here are a few more tidbits I picked up there (although some observations above probably also originated from other people at the screening):

* The acting, while seeming like it might have been at least partially improvised, was entirely scripted.

* Each of the three segments was filmed in about 5 or 6 days.

* The narrator is a man "for contrast."

* Greta's story might be autobiographical.

Rebecca Miller's second feature movie is just what you would expect to win awards at Sundance and similar festivals. Others can expect to sit through very roughly sketched plotlines - in this case, it's three rather shallow stories about women that don't particularly link up well or offer any satisfactory resolutions.

The photography by Ellen Kuras consists of some shaky (cheap and trendy) video handheld shots, mostly taken with the zoom lens on extreme tight --producing a nauseating wobble cam-- with the operator attempting to frame the subject within a rocky, sea-sick making image. The ugly, sensationalistic situations and course dialogue are mostly drawn from the perspective of disenfranchised immature females. Some of the title characters prefer to live out female fantasies with all takers (even when in successful relationships of their own making)...actions that predictably lead to utter chaos. All these women are quite unbelievably devoid of the ability to learn from any obvious life experiences or moral sensibilities.

It's difficult to fully sympathise with these somewhat sordid characters or feel all that much empathy for their all too obvious and inevitable outcomes. Performances are OK with Michael Rohatyn supplying a cute minimalist main theme. Rebecca's Dad, Arthur Miller, may have been a notable and worthy writer but that's clearly not always guaranteed to transfer to the offspring. As an example of the 'deep' and arty writing, consider this line read by the stories narrator: "She felt the ambition drain out of her like pus from a lanced boil"... Strictly for undemanding viewers or the 'types' we see introducing movies on Foxtel, etc. Others may give up within the first 15 mins and be better off for doing so.

I am hard-pressed to explain the praise heaped on this movie, and must sadly choose the obvious. This film would never have been touted as it has if it were made by someone other than Arthur Miller's daughter/Daniel Day Lewis's wife.

Of the film's three vignettes--domestic violence survivor, conflicted editor, and confused runaway--the second is most telling. Greta, the failure to her family, craves success and power in the literary world and only needs to have her innate talents recognized to do so. Her skill is "trimming the fat" from others' writing. However, Ms. Miller seems to have had no such attention paid to her own work. The incessant and intrusive voiceover dialogue, I assume taken directly from her collection of short stories, features pseudo-deep lines that made me literally laugh out loud.

In addition, I found many of the camera tricks and plot devices amateurish and the characters shallow and essentialized. I cannot recommend this film, which basks in its own specialness and its claims to gritty reality. Ms. Miller is a tourist in the lives of the struggling women she attempts to portray.

Personal Velocity is an odd film to watch and ponder. It's broken up into three relatively unrelated segments that each tells the story of a woman trying to overcome difficulties in her life, whether self-imposed or a product of her environment. There is Delia, trapped in an abusive relationship, Greta, who ponders a new career that could change her whole life, and Paula, a runaway contemplating fate after escaping a tragic accident.

This is a film that has the feel of a book - largely due to the rather heavy narration. Often that type of narration hampers the flow of a movie and acts as nothing more than an explanation for those who can't follow the plot; however, in this case, the voice over is one of a poetic guide merely showing us what lies before us - forcing the audience to draw their own conclusions. Such a demand upon the viewer is important in Personal Velocity as the stories do not necessarily paint the picture you might expect.

Overall I would say this was a beautiful, personally-introspective film that earned it's accolades and is well worth the time spent watching it.

25 May 2003. This was a gem of a movie that held heart and subtle moments of deep, resonating insight for women. There storylines and narrative work together...particularly the last portrait with Paula who picks up a young hitchhiker after running off and finding out she's pregnant. The narrative is surprisingly non-intrusive and the contradictions of emotions by the end of the movie are such that they are perfectly balanced against one another to make complete sense. The first portrait of Delia is a raw exposure to an unlikely female character who herself faces a very unlikeable husband. Yet by the end of the movie a sense of female resolution, even of the moderate moment in her life is priceless and filled with a strongs sense of identity and self-hood. It is only the incongruous second portrait which begs the question - of love and success. It is with Greta that by the end of the its conclusion I am perplexed by its logic and bewildered by its emotions - leaving me unsatisfied almost as Greta is with her tears.

It is difficult to evaluate a seven out of ten star movie because in order for this movie to succeed it required something not so commercial and smooth, polished. These intimate little gems succeeded just because they were rough. It is only with reluctance that I proceed to only give this movie a seven and use the excuse that the second portrayed left me puzzled instead of satisfied.

To be able to enjoy this movie, you first need to be open minded about digital video. You have to realize that DV will never look as pretty as film, so just get over it. That aside, the story itself is centered around three main characters, all women, who each seek freedom from the men in their lives. The strength in the film is not in the screenplay, but rather the emotion that is drawn out of the characters by the actresses themselves. Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk each give excellent dramatic performances. However, one fault I had with the film was the fact too much background information on each character was released through narration instead of being shown through action. It seemed as if the director/writer, (Rebecca Miller daughter of famed American playwright Arthur Miller), got lazy and decided to just take up screen time quoting directly from her book. Nevertheless, I found the film enjoyable and definitely worth seeing. I rated this film 7/10.

This movie is the story of three woman, told in separate segments. Each of the characters has to some extent engaged in self-delusion as to who they really are as persons and each one finds herself in the midst of a major life crisis. As each character deals with their situation, they begin to find out who they really are as persons and to find a possible path to self liberation, happiness and fulfillment in their lives. Delia(Kyra Sedgwick), is an abused wife and mother, who finds personal liberation by finding the courage to finally leave her abusive husband, and then finds her personal dignity and power by rediscovering her sexuality. Greta(Parker Posey), is a wife and daughter, who has long suffered, first by being caught in the middle in a struggle between her powerful, ambitious father and her weaker, more fragile mother for her love and affection, then later in an act of rebellion against her father, ends up in a loving but passionless marriage in which she has suppressed all her own personal ambitions. An opportunity for success rekindles in her all her own passions and ambition, as she struggles to finally break free from the influence of her parents, to come to terms with her husband and marriage and to be who she really is as a person. Paula(Fairuza Balk) is a young woman, who finds herself pregnant and who after a terrible accident, in a state of shock starts out on a journey to try and escape and make sense of what is happening to her. An encounter with an abused runaway, helps her refocus on her own plight and discover her own ability to care about others besides her self. All the acting in the film is excellent, but Parker Posey as Greta really stands out. This is the first film that makes use of Parker's ability as an actress to convey emotion and internal conflict, without dialog, simply by the expression on her beautiful face, and it is absolutely stunning to watch. She turns Greta, who could have been very unsympathetic, into a character that one can care about. This beautifully written, beautifully acted movie is very intelligent and very complex. One that makes the viewer think deeply. Which in an age of almost total shallowness in the majority of films (all flash, no thought!), a movie that stimulates thought is a true breat of fresh air. There are no tight, neatly wrapped up endings in this movie, you have no way of knowing if the characters have made the right choices in their lives. This makes it tough for audiences and critics to embrace this movie, but if you do look deeply at it, and think about it, you will come to appreciate and love it.

Closeup- Beth in Car Door Window-Door handle opening as someone gets in-Closeup of his handsome face--Beth: Can you excuse me, I have to stop for donuts. Closeup of Shop Door, Beth walking in then ignition key turning as hitch hiker moves her car. Beth looks away. Beth: Hurry with that couple of dozen, I'm pregnant. She carries the donut box out, gets into the car. The Hitch Hiker's hand grabs a donut from the box, Closeup of a donut hole. His mouth munches one down. Cut to Rain falling on car back window, steam rising and groans from within while he makes out with her. Later, interior, apartment, Beth's hand is seen picking up a script. The cover page reads, "Never use close camera angles or other devices so often it makes the viewer lose interest in the characters and story. Try to film a movie the way you'd like a live audience to watch it. Grade F, see me. Professor Hollywood Hack."

It is so hard to find a film that actually elicits a genuine emotional response from its viewers, but you need look no further than "Personal Velocity". The direction and scriptwriting are both wonderful and the acting is definitely award-worthy. "Personal Velocity" explores a major event in the lives of three different women, Delia (Kyra Sedgwick), Greta (Parker Posey) and Paula (Fairuza Balk). The first segment of the three explores Delia's quest to rebuild her life after escaping from an abusive household. Kyra Sedgwick is completely believable as Delia and delivers one of the best performances of her career. The second segment tells the story of Greta, an unknown businesswoman, suddenly thrust into the limelight and all of the troubles that it brings. Parker Posey, while not quite as good as she usually is in comedic films (see her amazing turn in The House of Yes), still gives an admirable performance. The third and final segment is one of the most emotional, showing a confused young woman, Paula, witnessing a tragic accident and hitting the road in panic, where she picks up a badly injured hitch-hiker. Fairuza Balk captures the character's quirks perfectly, giving you the impression of watching a real-life happening. The script is wonderfully timed and striking, with the exception of some of the narrator's lines, the cinematography perfectly captures the mood, confusion and panic of the storyline, and the three actresses show the potential for brilliance that all three have. All in all, a beautiful, melancholy film experience.

This movie is a total shame for independent films; i have seen a few of them lately and i was proud of them, but this is a total waste of time, it's more interesting to watch my dog licking his tail all day than the life of these three women. I know that everybody's life is a movie (like TNT slogan), but hey this is exaggerated!, Rebeca Miller only manages to make common lives see as the most boring lives ever!

1.Delia: I can't understand how you changed that much from high school to adult!, Rebecca choose two actress so different that you can get laugh loud, There are so few actors in the world? God, she choose the more different from Kyra Sedwick to play the role?; she also is proud of her big buttocks, but suddenly she grew up and they disappear! Here Sedwick plays the worst role of his life.

2. Greta: This one was the character that i felt would save the movie until she deploys a forced infidelity problem that doesn't fit with the character, anyone could have walked in front of her and she would have kissed him, this depressing story almost made me stop the movie.

3. Paula: God this was the worst, i felt in a horror movie, she looked like the witch Nancy in "The Craft", dressed in black and with that scary look in her eyes, she picked up a boy full of wounds like " I know what you Did Last Summer" and is pregnant (Rosemary's baby?). What was the deal here Miller? Dear Rebecca if you tried to left a message in this film please explain it to me, i didn't understood what you wanted! How the parents behavior cause troubled lives to their sons?, besides that and that the main characters are women i didn't saw any connection in the stories.

About the Movie: This film consists of three different short stories of common women in USA. (1) Delia (Kyra Sedwick) a woman of the working class that lives with a husband that abuse physically of her and her child, and gives her a miserable life; her childhood story is explained with a hippie father good for nothing and how she liked to please her classmates with her own abilities; after her husband Kurt (David Warshowsky) hit her, she decides to leave and make a deep turn in her life. (2) Greta (Parker Posey) has a job as editor of books of cuisine and also, a nice husband. Her father leave her and her mom to live with other woman, she suddenly got an offer to work for editing a book of someone famous who knew her abilities, in that she shows a dark side of her, permanent and uncontrolled infidelity well hidden in his successful career. (3) Paula (Fairuza Balk) a woman that lives with a man from Haiti that picked her up from the streets, and whose fathers lives are a shame, her old mom left his dad and lives with a heartless man, she find a boy on the road and picked him trying to help him (she believes that), and she is also pregnant.

1/10 for one of the most boring stories that i have ever seen.

A critic I read before seeing this movie (Lynden Barber of the Sydney Morning Herald) opined that it was a book illustrated with film rather than a proper movie. He's right, but that does not make it a complete write-off. There is as much voice-over as in a football match (why use a male?) but the visuals still convey some of the stories, which are not all without interest.

There are three separate stories of women having trouble with men; two from the working class and one an upwardly mobile book editor. They are tenuously connected by a street incident. One has a bashing husband, another, a husband she has outgrown, and the third has problems with her boyfriend, her stepfather and her maternal instinct. All seem to favour running away as the solution; stand and fight is not the female way, at least not in New York State.

The author of the original short stories is Rebecca Miller, who also directed from her own screenplay. This certainly accounts for the literary quality. Rebecca has a famous literary father, the great Arthur Miller, and I suspect he is in the film somewhere as a character or at least a presence. The working class girl stories are too trite to be involving (though very well played by Kyra Sedgwick and Fairuza Balk) but the middle story of the book editor (played coolly by Parker Posey) rings true. The use of digital video suits the subject-matter (Dogma 95 on the Hudson) and the whole thing is competently realised. It is the weakness in the first and third stories that disappoints.