Of course, the self- deprecating and funny Julie Delpy would make a film as self-deprecating and funny as Two Days in New York.
A boisterous continuation of Delpy's Two Days in Paris, New York, screening Thursday as the final movie in the One World Film Festival, finds Marion, played by the effervescent Delpy, in a different city with a different American partner (a very low-key Chris Rock). But it's still about how nutty those French people are.
Charmingly, Two Days buys into every stereotype about the French: They're always naked, they don't bathe, they'll fight about anything. Then it shows how even those annoying qualities are oddly delightful.
The occasion for Two Days is a visit by Marion's wacky family. They're led by her freewheeling dad (played by Delpy's real father, Albert Delpy) and her libidinous sister (Alexia Landeau, affirming another French stereotype).
There's not much for plot in Two Days, but who needs it when virtually every meal, mail delivery or trip to the park offers myriad opportunities for one member of Marion's family to insult, embarrass or make an inappropriate sexual advance to another member of her family?
In fact, the only time Delpy runs into trouble is with a stab at a plot, a climactic moment of danger that does not fit with the rest of the movie. Like Paris, the appeal of New York is that it gives us a half-dozen characters who are fun to spend 90 minutes with, even if they would not be fun to spend a weekend with.
Both movies are light, seemingly effortless comedies that delight in pointing out the characters' annoying and peculiar bits of behavior. There's no great theme; Delpy would never impose a lesson on her movie. But it's nevertheless clear that she thinks people are crazy and infuriating, and that is what makes them so swell.
MOVIE REVIEW
One World Film Festival: 'Two Days in New York'
★★★★☆
R for language, sexual content, some drug use and brief nudity. 1:36. Magnolia Pictures.
When: 5 and 7:30 p.m. March 14
Where: Kentucky Theatre, 214 E. Main St.
Admission: Free
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Learn more: (859) 266-6073, Oneworldfilmfestival.org
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