Review: ‘The Pleasure Of Being Robbed’ LAFF 08

In Joshua Safdie’s debut feature, The Pleasure of Being Robbed, we are offered a confusing world of discarded moments under the supposition of a missing larger picture. In it, Eleanor, a young and vaguely directionless 20-something, ambles her way through the big city as a minor force of thoughtless menace. Outwitting the apparently very stupid citizens of New York, she moves amongst them, stealing what are at times inexplicable objects from strangers’ possessions such as huge wads of money left unattended or most beguiling, a bag of random living animals intended for a child. The kind of person who buys a litter of kittens, throws them in a travel bag with a large dog and zips them up together is cause for concern alone, but the animals soon leave the picture once in Eleanor’s care, either an illustration for her general apathy or the filmmaker’s own deficiency in following up on things. That these moments are never given clarity, or even given the courtesy of some lingering attention at any point in the film is only the beginning of the problem.

Screening at the LA Film Festival with a short film before it, the thoroughly pointless “The New Yorkist”, TPOBR stars its own screenwriter (that term used very, very loosely here) and even its own director for a large slow-moving section of the film. If there is more of an argument for film makers to stay out of their own movies, I’m not sure I know of it. Here Safdie’s character and Eleanor steal a car and drive Safdie home to Boston (despite him having apparently riden to New York via bicycle). The two go on what I can only describe as akin to being on a road trip with two unappealing strangers you just met and listening to them engage in awkward stilted dialogue the entire way. Film makers, if you are not actors you must resist, DO NOT put yourself in your movies. It lends this film even more of an amateurish feel than it was already laboring beneath.

After the trip some more fairly random things happen, including the film’s singular highlight: an out of place dream sequence at the zoo involving a hilariously fake but endearing polar bear and Eleanor enjoying a moment together in the water before a random madman throws a penguin into their midst. As interesting as that was, it only highlighted the inactivity of the film and its meager 78 minutes. Yes, 78 minutes, 20 of which are largely shot from the back seat of a car during small talk between characters. TPOBR represents the laziest efforts of the recent “mumblecore” movement; whereas a film like Baghead uses its low key setup to extract the best of its onscreen talent, Robbed takes the opportunity to navel-gaze and meander and avoid a point while having the audacity to suppose that this dream-like filler is enough. Its very premise is flawed, championing a world of misguided hipsters so desperate for a genuine experience that even being robbed is an acceptable replacement. That premise fails because the world is full of moments and experiences far greater than the ones presented here, and the theft of 78 minutes of an audience’s time is not satisfying to anyone.

[rating: 1/5]