James Gray's Two Lovers

James Gray's "Two Lovers" opens this weekend. I haven't seen the film but the critics are very sweet on it. Read Owen Gleiberman in EW here where he likens it with high praise to a 70s movie, which is, I suspect, something Gray is happy to hear

"I tend to bristle whenever a new film gets compared to ''a '70s movie,'' as if an era defined by its rambling unpredictability of form can now be reduced to a mere genre. But James Gray's Two Lovers really is a '70s movie, in the mode of such raw, unfiltered character studies as The Panic in Needle Park, Wanda, and Fat City."

James Gray is a talented and mostly underrated filmmaker, one of the best we have in the US, and someone certainly who will be appreciated under the magnifying glass of time. There is nothing hip about his style, nothing flashy (although that rainy car chase scene in "We Own the Night" was awesome!) but his intelligence, sensitivity and gentle attention to the role of story put him head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries. Plus he's a good chap.