Unmade Beds 2009

Dreamily sensuous, Unmade Beds, the year's hippest, freshest, most sweetly inclusive date movie, is a lyrical tale of two solitary expats crossing paths in the international art-rock milieu of a sprawling East London squat. Twenty-year-old Axl has come from Spain to find his long-lost English father. Axl drinks himself into forgetting at night, awaking each morning to another set of nonchalant hosts and lovers. Vera is a French-speaking beauty, wounded in love and oozing continental ennui at her bookstore job. She responds to a stranger's flirtation with games of mystery and intrigue and risks losing the lover of her life in the process. Among the bands making cameo appearances, Connan Mockasin adds a touch of Kiwi to young Argentine director Alexis dos Santos's romantic vision of cosmopolitan 21st-century Bohemia. — BG

“Characterized by lyrical flashbacks, melancholy voiceover from Axl and Vera, some steamy group sex and cheeky intertitles that not only isolate the characters but also keep track of all the rampant bed-hopping, Unmade Beds honors its New Wave touchstones with remarkable freshness and vibrancy. Moving to its own narrative and thematic rhythms, the film seems especially invested in questions of identity and vulnerability; both Axl and Vera withhold crucial details from people as a means of shielding themselves from further pain. Tielve (as Axl) emanates a callow-young-Eurotrash vibe that threatens to turn irritating at first but suffuses his mellow, watchful performance with quiet emotion, while François is a wistful charmer in a much less high-strung role than she had in thrillers such as The Child and The Page Turner.” — Justin Chang, Variety