Film

The Unbelievable Truth

Name: The Unbelievable Truth
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1990
Cast: Adrienne Shelly, Robert John Burke, Chris Cooke, Julia McNeal, Katherine Mayfield

Drama

Hal Hartley's debut feature is a small-town comedy of misunderstanding and attraction, where a returning ex-con's dark reputation precedes him into every conversation. It's deadpan and peculiar, shot in crisp black-and-white, moving at a rhythm all its own. For anyone who loves dialogue that circles around what people actually mean, and characters who say the funniest things while barely cracking a smile.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy deadpan, stilted dialogue and small-town oddballs whose dull routines hide a gentle, offbeat romance, the kind of low-budget indie style that lands through silence and rhythm rather than plot.

Skip it if you want momentum or warmth turned up; the flat, deliberate delivery and long stretches of stillness can feel like waiting for a joke that never quite arrives.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes of patience with unhurried scenes, flat line readings and awkward pauses, where the humor builds slowly and pays off for viewers who stay put rather than leaning forward.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Stranger Than Paradise1984

Jim Jarmusch's deadpan debut about drifters and disconnection. Minimal plot, maximum mood, and a grasp of how funny boredom can be. The spiritual ancestor to Hartley's sensibility.

But It moves slowly and deliberately, with long stretches where nothing much happens. If you need narrative momentum, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Clerks1994

Kevin Smith's black-and-white comedy about people stuck in place, talking in circles about nothing and everything. Shot on a shoestring, full of digressions and philosophy masquerading as banter.

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Trust1990

Another Hartley film from the same year—equally strange, even more caustic. A pregnant teenager and an angry young man bond over their mutual rejection. A masterclass in his particular brand of uncomfortable comedy.

But It's bleaker and colder than The Unbelievable Truth, with characters whose company can feel exhausting rather than charming.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Unbelievable Truth

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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Erotique1994

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A Prophet2009

Both films concern a man marked by suspicion or reputation, and how he moves through a world that has already decided who he is. Both find their emotional truth in the small human connections he makes along the way, despite everything.

Jacques Audiard's film about a young man in prison learning to survive. Shot in cool blues and grays, it moves between violence and quiet observation. A slow-burn that builds to something genuinely great.

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Pascal Laugier's horror-fantasy hybrid, a puzzle box of a film about women in a house haunted by something that might not be supernatural. Visually stunning, structurally audacious, and genuinely unsettling.

But The twist is divisive, and the tonal shifts from horror to magical realism to psychological drama will confuse or alienate you if you need genre consistency. It's also bleak in ways that go beyond dark comedy.