Posted by Mr. Beaks

Woe betide the cineaste who believes they can predict Jonathan Rosenbaum's opinion from one film to the next.  Though he's writing entirely to infrequently these days – he appears to have adopted a bi-weekly schedule for the time being – when he does deign to chime in, he’s always worth reading, which can be a dicey proposition, particularly when he recommends a film I’d rather avoid, like Sally Potter’s Yes.

Composed in rhyming iambic pentameter, Potter’s latest, a post-9/11 love story set in England and starring the always watchable Joan Allen, underwhelmed critics at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, but Rosenbaum is downright enthusiastic about the film, going so far as to bestow his highest, four-star rating on the sucker.  What keeps me from dismissing this as some odd spasm of contrarianism is that Rosenbaum hasn’t been a fan of her recent efforts – Orlando and The Tango Lesson.  He further piques my interest with this passage from his review:

"This is the first Potter feature I've fully enjoyed since her first, The Gold Diggers, a black-and-white feminist SF musical received so poorly in 1983 that she's rarely allowed it to be screened since. Broadly speaking, the closest thing to a precedent for Yes is Alain Resnais and Marguerite Duras' 1959 Hiroshima, mon amour."

Yes is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles, and, according to Rosenbaum, may very well be worth your time.  Just remember, blame him.