Anywhere USA

'Subtitles repel American men' says Ricky, a small, small-town, Arab-terrorist-hunting redneck in the first part of Chusy's (director Anthony Haney-Jardine) three-part meditation on Penance, Loss and Ignorance. His anti-terrorist mission is ignited when trailer park pal, Gene, finds a pistachio, 'the official nut of the Jihad', on the couch of his lover, Tammy. Clearly, this indicates that she has found another man, one with the wrong kind of moustache. Facial hair links all the stories, culminating in Ralph's aristocratic beard. It has guided him so smoothly into the elite, that at the height of his privilege he experiences a dinner table revelation that he doesn't know any black people.

Oblivious to his wife's sexual frustration and his son's minor tranq habit, he clumsily sets about rectifying that. The middle story is about Pearl, orphaned through a freak accident in the Gulf, who lives an unreal life with her hairy hippy uncle, accidentally eating dope-cake and sustained only by her unswerving belief in the tooth-fairy. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, this film hilariously exposes the fissures in everyday American life with sharp observational visuals and an immaculate wit.
Helen de Witt