Join Karen and Lance on this week’s episode of CineAmerican Dream as they dive into the dreamy, saturated world of Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights (2007). This romantic drama is the legendary Hong Kong director’s English-language debut and stars Grammy-winning musician Norah Jones in her first acting role alongside Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, and David Strathairn. When heartbroken Elizabeth walks into Jeremy’s Manhattan diner for a slice of blueberry pie, it’s the beginning of a cross-country journey through America from neon-lit diners, smoky Memphis bars, to the poker tables of Las Vegas. But does Wong’s distinctively stylized lens capture authentic American experience, or does it all feel a bit too rose-tinted?
Karen and Lance unpack the film’s mixed critical reception, then explore what happens when a visual poet tackles the American road trip to discuss the film’s episodic structure and examine how this outsider’s perspective reflects both the beauty and strangeness of the American dream. So grab a slice of pie (blueberry or otherwise) and settle in with CineAmerican Dream to explore what it means when directors from outside the U.S. turn their cameras on American dreams and disappointments.
https://youtu.be/CfeEk7kaH7c
