More absurdism, except that this time it’s Vladimir and Estragon, not Lucky and Pozzo. These co-protagonists are self-regarding and incapable of learning from or responding to challenges and failures. But they are appealing, and there’s an admirable perseverance in the way that they continue to put up with each other. Like with Beckett, the figurative connections with friendship and domestic relations are substantial and poignant. There’s lots of good comic business played out on this impressive snowy setting. Some of it—note the white wrap that makes the dark guy temporarily invisible—actually looks like an exercise or a purely cinematic, purely formal experiment. It would seem that it’s nearly time for this superb young director to try something a little more extended, or exacting. Has anyone here heard of Knife in the Water?