Quote from Henry Fool by Simon Grim:

“I worked, while you sat back and comfortably dismissed the outside world as too shallow, stupid and mean to appreciate your ideas.”


Executive Producers: Keith Abell, Larry Meistrich, and Daniel J. Victor

Director: Hal Hartley

Writer: Hal Hartley

Major Cast: Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Fool, James Urbaniak as Simon Grim, Parker Posey as Fay Grim, Liam Aiken as Ned, Maria Porter as Mary, James Saito as Mr. Deng, Kevin Corrigan as Warren, Nicholas Hope as Father Hawkes, and Miho Nikaido as Gnoc Deng

MMPA Rating: R for strong sexuality, violence and language

Running Time: 2 hours and 17 minutes


Henry Fool is a black comedy by Hal Hartley.  This is part of a trilogy although I’ve only seen the first one.  Fay Grim was released in 2006 and Ned Rifle in 2014.  If there ever was an indie movie, this would be it.  If I had to pick which is the worst: being a socially awkward person or a writer without any talent, it would be the writer without any talent.  Why?  Because Henry Fool honestly believes he’s the next great writer to be discovered and upon meeting Simon Grim, he pushes him to the next great poet.  He imagines great success for them both, but too bad reality gets in the way for Henry.  He  does more carrying around notebooks filled with his crappy writing and throwing caution to the wind.  Simon has some success with this writing, but not to the heights he wishes.  While I recommend this movie, there’s some parts of it that could have been stitched together tighter.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen this movie, 22 years to be exact, but yet I remember bits and parts of it.  It was good enough to watch the first time and maybe a second time.