TIMELESS

Like a fragile flower sprouting up between the cracks of grimy urban pavement, Chris Hart's superbly stylized feature finds tragically tentative beauty on mean city streets, where true love is as rare as honest money. Terry is a reluctant young go-between for small-time con men and wiseguys. Lyrica is an abused concubine and trophy mistress for a gun-running hood. Together they try a dangerous flight to freedom, their plight paralleled by Terry's drunkard father on a seemingly hopeless quest to find his vanished wife, the last thing he holds dear. Cinematography that veers from coarse-grain images to crystal delicacy (much of the narrative is comprised of still photos) put the eye in a New York state of mind and herald the advent of new talent behind and before the viewfinder.- Charles Cassady