"The Unbelievable Truth" is a movie for film buffs. Those who wander in off the street are likely to be confused, since it seems to be so unsprung and without purpose. What Hartley is doing, however, is writing a film essay on conventions and cliches and middle-American movie characters. He establishes them as completely ordinary, and then he lets them wander off into the byways of their destinies. What makes the film fun is the deadpan, tongue-in-cheek humor that undermines the seemingly sincere dramatic scenes."

- Roger Ebert, 1990

"I'm a mechanic". Funny and quirky.

Hard to believe The Unbelievable Truth is Hal Hartley's first feature because it feels like it's all there already. An askew romantic comedy about a radical girl obsessed with doomsday who falls for an ex-con credited with killing two people, its decoder ring is in the characters thinking Molière wrote tragedies (which made me laugh out loud, so you see what kind of person I am). The movie continually upends what's expected of a romcom, and of a Molière comedy. So the unreasonable rich father of those plays who tries to marry his daughter off is here a blue collar guy who's desperate to send her to college and make something of herself. The parents try to prevent the match, and later absurdly try to push her into his arms. Characters do not arc towards "better" but towards "worse". And yet there are theatrical solutions that wouldn't be amiss in Classical theater. Hartley's theatricality creates a nice bouncy banter that while "written" still feels natural and is amusing when it needs to be. Already, here, he's experimenting with repeated lines, something that will take its ultimate form in Flirt.