WHERE IS ROCKY II? (Pierre Bismuth, France/Germany/Belgium/Italy). 93 minutes. Rating: NNNN
Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Mojave Desert there’s a fake rock named Rocky II, a piece by pop artist Ed Ruscha. In 2006, the slyest of stones captured the attention of Pierre Bismuth, the witty screenwriter behind Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, who began a quest to find it.
Running in parallel to the hunt, two Hollywood screenwriters are given free rein to riff on this story, and Bismuth weaves their fictional sequences into something brilliantly meta. Who’s really behind this mystery?
What starts as a doc unfolds as a detective thriller, making this a debut that’s creative, original and eminently watchable – even if those expecting a “real” documentary about “fake” art may be disappointed. JH
May 1, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank 4 May 3, noon, TIFF 4 May 8 , 6:30 pm, TIFF 3
