Hermia & Helena

For discerning moviegoers, the affably disorienting "Hermia & Helena" might just be the right kind of midsummer night's dreaminess.

Hermia & Helena presents a unique anomaly -- it's able to capture life at its most low-key but still manages to exemplify style over substance.

Part of the charm of Hermia & Helena is in the way it freely and randomly plays with form, employing luxuriantly slow dissolves, unexpected snatches of superimposed text, and even a black-and-white film-within-the-film.

A peculiar film, one both steely and delicate.

There are a few different potential films within Hermia & Helena - a Shakespeare adaptation, a tale of romantic relationships, a tale of family - but the totality proves a sunny and affable literary collage.

By positioning Shakespeare within a chatty tale of young adulthood - and giving it a feminist slant - Piñeiro proves the vitality of the material without becoming subservient to it.

Always delightful, Hermia & Helena sees Piñeiro making an auteur film that fits into his oeuvre while expanding it in exciting directions-and en route, he makes New York his own.

The film runs smoothly, with naturalism, dropping the main secrets of the main character in small doses as they pass through both cities. [Full review in Spanish]

I went to see a new Argentine movie and a 1990s Whit Stillman movie broke out. I'm not complaining at all.

If Hermia & Helena triumphs on all fronts, it does so largely thanks to the contribution of Fernando Lockett, the photography director, who portrays the actors with a choreographic charm. [Full review in Spanish]

A staging where the important thing is to enjoy, relax and turn any shred of drama into an excuse to be free. [Full review in Spanish]

Things are never quite what they seem in this film's mischievous scheme, and although this idea feels breezy as it's playing out, there's something essential and very human about that observation.