My Friend the Polish Girl

I liked this idea, but I could not fall for it... I could never believe this way real, and I wanted to.

A really heady little film that seeped into me.

From its cramped, off-the-cuff shooting style (mostly in washed-out monochrome) to its persuasive ensemble, "My Friend the Polish Girl" mostly pulls off the documentary pretense with wily skill.

Shot mostly in black and white and with an improvisational feel, "My Friend the Polish Girl" is cool and clever, feigning social realism with winking calculation.

Has a hand-made, passion project feel to it - for better and for worse.

In its indirect way, it casts a compassionate light on London's migrant workers that a more conventional documentary - or conventional drama - wouldn't.

Altogether, My Friend The Polish Girl shows the dark side of female friendships and documentary filmmaking in an interesting way.

As a study in personal (rather than national) loneliness, My Friend the Polish Girl is a crisp, somehow unfinished, but still personal study of a woman looking for intimacy.

My Friend the Polish Girl is an interesting cinematic experiment with plenty to say about the filmmaking process. It's just occasionally unwilling to come out and say it.

It's a provocative, bold story told with an inventive approach to how cinema works today.