Welcome to Reel Time Revisits, our latest film criticism series. Each entry will consist of a particular film that both writers have seen at least once and the ensuing commentary by each writer that follows.

Ty Landis: Two Lovers succeeds on a level that most would mark as routine or traditional, as James Gray has crafted a film wholly etched in American sensibilities. Not only does the film include a trio of excellent performances, most notably Joaquin Phoenix’s as Leonard, but its pleasures are solely attached to the patience and grace behind the camera. The familiar trope of a troubled man caught torn between love and desire couldn’t appear more authentic as it is here. It’s often startling to see Leonard run the gauntlet of emotions as his unbalanced sense of being is tested throughout the film. Gray’s palette of blues and grays (no pun intended) serve as clarity to not only Leonard’s stilted state, but also of a specific time and place that Gray seems to know all too well. Two Lovers may not appeal to the masses, but it’s a tiny gem, perhaps even a small masterpiece. I eagerly await whatever work Gray has lined up next.

Derin Spector: While I agree that Two Lovers follows a more conventional route by way of a familiar, emotionally damaged central character, his compulsion to stray from familial convention can still strike a chord with some viewers. Phoenix’s portrayal of Leonard is easily his best to date, and the predicaments he finds himself in whilst juggling two disparate romantic relationships are oddly plausible at times and authentic as such. While the more dramatic aspects of the film remain characteristic of the genre Two Lovers fits snugly into, it’s a combination of what director Gray knows what to do with the material he and co-writer Ric Menello have put forth in their script and an ability to milk what he can out of a typically conventional premise. It’s not groundbreaking, that’s for sure, but it is what it is, and what it is surpasses cheesy, substandard forays into similar territory.