Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!

Mészáros’s third feature seems her most weightless, an almost plotless caper through the Hungarian psychedelic-folk “New Beat” underground that merges Iron Curtain industrial realism with A Hard Day’s Night fancy. Documenting the dreamless workdays of factory life, along with the hopeful promise of rock concerts, Mészáros uses Czech New Wave icon Jaroslava Schallerová (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) as a totem and narrative guide, her every languorous movement a cue to the film’s rhythm and mood. Amidst the rockers (including such famed bands as Metro, Omega, and Syrius), though, Mészáros’s frame is focused on all the “pretty girls” looking for different lives to lead.