The Learning Curve
Sleek and stylish,The Learning Curvefollows two young lovers named Georgia (Monet Mazur) and Paul (Carmine Giovinazzo) who quickly discover they have a mutual taste for recklessness, cheap fast food, and petty larceny. But when a scam goes awry, they're at the mercy of a ruthless and criminal record executive. Paul starts to work for the exec and, to Georgia's dismay, is soon seduced by drugs and money.The Learning Curvestarts out slightly implausible but is consistently surprising; as it goes along, the story grows more clichéd, yet the script, direction, and performances are smart enough that the movie maintains its stylish momentum. By the end,The Learning Curveis just short of preposterous, yet--much like the Hong Kong action movies that surely influenced the director--the movie remains so fully committed to the high-pitched emotions of its melodramatic plot that it becomes not only engaging but even moving.--Bret Fetzer