Heaven Knows What

Heaven Knows What feels like an authentic, sometimes painfully accurate portrait of life in New York City as experienced by the homeless, ever-hustling teenagers.

Fans of the cinematic street poet Larry Clark (Kids, Bully) might go for this, though the unexpected moments of dignity and compassion that deepen his characters are in short supply here.

Holmes has a face that reveals everything and nothing. Besides being strikingly photogenic, she's a natural.

All this desperation and squalor reeks of authenticity.

A striking portrait of addiction that doesn't say anything new - drugs are bad, kids - but it leaves a lasting and chilling impression.

It's just a portrait of emptiness, but it feels a lot like the real thing.

A film where the camera is always in motion without glamour and humor but, also, without horror or excessive miserabilism and that has the music of Debussy. [Full review in Spanish]

A story of addiction and survival with a very clean documentary style, with lots of seemingly out of rhythm zooms. [Full review in Spanish]

For an hour and a half, we watch a vacant young woman batter herself with two ruinous addictions: heroin, and her love for a despicable fellow vagrant Remarkably, though, it all becomes kind of compelling -- a testament to the film's aggressive vitality.

Kudos to the Safdies for not sugar-coating or otherwise romanticizing the experience of being an addict, but it is a bummer to watch.

In its own downbeat way, it's a film with spirit and heart.