New York November

Plot synopsis:
1999. A few days before Thanksgiving.After a disastrous bank robbery attempt in Los Angeles fails, Bruce McGray has hit rock bottom. Pursued by the FBI and badly injured, he escapes up north to Oregon and from there to New York. He longs to leave everything behind and start a new life. Maybe even in the place in South America so vividly described in a young womans diary: An abandoned orange grove on the coast of Columbia.Bruce received the book in the mail just a few days ago from a woman named Maria. Ten years ago, they were in a tumultuous relationship with one another, which Bruce abruptly ended. Now, he wonders how Maria found him after all these years and why she would send him a perfect strangers diary.The diary describes her stay at the extraordinary orange farm, 15 miles southwest of Cartagena and her difficult journey home to Alabama.When he finds several disturbing photos in the book, they for some reason seem familiar to him, and he senses he must somehow be connected to this mysterious young woman.Late that night as he reads the book, Bruce witnesses the brutal beating of Dana, the woman who lives upstairs at the hands of her jealous husband. His inability to help her overwhelm Bruce and provoke a rush of fragmented and somber memories long since buried. Bruce now fears that his connection to the book and the unknown woman go much deeper.That night, he flees his apartment, never imagining that his path will cross Danas again.When he finally reaches Maria the next evening, he discovers some very unsettling things about himself.
As federal authorities and the New York police close in, Bruce sets out on a desperate search to discover his true identity.

Tags: violence, neo noir

Review:
Psychic Odyssey. Blurred vision, unsteady camera - the first minutes of South are quite hard to take, especially when you chose to sit relatively near to the screen. But rest assured: Everything goes according to plan, and although South is anything but a straightly narrated movie and you will probably have a lot to discuss afterwords (what a difference to 90% of the popcorn-industry-sponsored crap usually shown), the erratic path gets clearer on the way - which is, most importantly, strangely entertaining. South is crime, mystery, a hint of romantic and in the center a man searching for himself and his own past. This film, which took not less then 12 (!) years to realize, speaks of determination and absolute devotion only because it exists. This basic feeling makes the acting intense to the point of overwhelming, the rough black-and-white-pictures extra edgy. The soundtrack, which actually was produced twice, is very worth mentioning. In one word: Leave your popcorn at home, submerge in this piece with your full awareness, and tho' it's definitely not for everyone, a lot will be greatly rewarded.. A rather vague piece of wannabe art. I saw "South" in a Sneak preview yesterday, and was quite disappointed. As much as I sympathize with the filmmakers' endurance to finish their project over such a long period of time, I must say that the result does not make an entertaining film. There is a mysterious trauma from the past which lacks credibility, and side plots that seem to be going somewhere, but don't. The film leaves much of the backgrounds of its characters unexplained, but that feels like an oversight, rather than a clever stylistic device. Some of the actors are quite good, and the cinematography and music are alright, but the flow between scenes is not always smooth (maybe because of the endless production process). We constantly hear the protagonist's thoughts in a voice-over, which struck me as rather inelegant. This film wants to be art, but is mostly confusion. If you are looking for great alternative cinema, you may want to look somewhere else.. It definitely feels like 12 years. But 12 years of your own life passing by, while you seem to be unable to stop it (especially if you did not watch it on Disc, but on the big screen, where you do not have the remote control at hand, to fast forward the movie).Yes the movie has quite nice themes and its psychological depths seem rich. The problem is: They only seem rich. Pretending and stretching the paper thin plot to such lengths is almost as if you are trying to punish your viewers. Is it our fault that the makers needed 12 years to finish this? Although the question to ask me or any other viewer could also be: Why stay and watch it then? Well I never give up on a movie halfway through. And though there is no physical pain involved in watching one movie, it definitely reached a level of annoyance that only a few movies have reached so far.The movie tries to be clever, but in my eyes never achieves it. The hand-held style is not working either. It does add just another level of annoyance to the whole thing. But there is another side to the coin ... another review to be more apt ... read that too and make up your mind, if you really want to risk watching this.