AllMovie

An interesting cap to the to trio of Hal Hartley shorts found on the videocassette of Surviving Desire, Ambition otherwise may not hold viewers on its own. The short film represents the contemplative avant-garde style of Hartley, but plays a little strange, even for his measures. In it, a soothing voice provides insightful commentary while the male lead gets involved in a series of violent interactions, a shtick that becomes tiresome by the end of the piece. The surreal office environs provide a more realistic interaction between the protagonist and a woman, which serves to bring the viewer into the story for a moment. A would-be elevator passenger gives a stream-of-consciousness monologue that is an interesting piece of writing, although scattered in its meaning. But after a few moments, strange experiments with sound and image discontinuity resume, the point of which never quite gelling, leaving the viewer to ponder Hartley's exorbitant creativity as something incomprehensible.