Henry Fool

Henry Fool (1998) is Hal Hartley's tragicomedy, available to watch online on iFILM. Simon Grim, a withdrawn New Jersey garbageman, has no expectations left: he supports his sick mother and erratic sister, and his only pleasure is a quiet beer after his shift.

Everything shifts when Henry Fool moves into their basement — a self-mythologizing drifter lugging a battered suitcase and a sprawling "Confession" he's convinced is a work of genius. Henry goads the near-mute Simon into writing. Then the garbageman's clumsy poetry detonates across the neighborhood, and the bond between the two men curdles into a sharp parable about talent, envy and the price of being noticed. James Urbaniak plays Simon, Thomas Jay Ryan is Henry, and Parker Posey is his sister Fay.

Hartley took the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes for this one, then expanded it into a three-film saga. Dry, ironic dialogue, awkward silences, absurdity laced with real bitterness — this is American indie cinema of the '90s at its most distinctive. Anyone tired of frictionless storytelling will feel right at home. Stream Henry Fool (1998) online on iFILM.