(Hal Hartley, 1997, USA, 138 minutes)

Winner of the best screenplay prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival under jury president Martin Scorsese, these days Hal Hartley’s 1997 effort, Henry Fool, is considered by many to be the best film of his career (so far, at least). Here we follow the Grim siblings, garbage man Simon (James Urbaniak, making his feature debut) and Fay (Parker Posey, reteaming with Hartley after 1995’s Flirt), who take in the writer/criminal Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan, also making his feature debut). Henry encourages Simon to write as well, and Simon’s success quickly dwarfs that of Henry.