City Paper / Philadelphia recommends Between Something & Nothing

The elements of Todd Verow's work that once could be dismissed as technical deficiencies now, with a steady output averaging a film a year since his 1995 feature debut, Frisk, have to be taken as stylistic quirks. His latest is an indirect follow-up to 2006's autobiographical Vacationland, depicting his years as an art student and part-time hustler at the Rhode Island School of Design. Both films share a surfeit of affectless acting and tangential storylines, but the friendship between the director's alter ego and a female student with a penchant for shoplifting provides a spine for the often wandering narrative to cling to. —Shaun Brady (July 16, 9:30 WT; July 20, 12:15 AB)