Sudden Manhattan

sudden_manhattan

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Seattle International Film Festival
1996
  
  

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Directed by: Adrienne Shelly

year: 1997 80 minutes

Official selection of the 1996 Chicago International Film Festival.

A comedic urban fantasy which graphs the foibles of a young Manhattan resident, Donna, who's under siege in her own neighborhood. Laid off from her museum job, harassed by her love-obsessed landlord and simply uninspired to leave her own apartment, Donna's already complex life takes a turn for the worst when she inadvertently witnesses a murder. She then begins to doubt her own sanity as she encounters prophetic street poets, dysfunctional would-be boyfriends and love-deranged friends.

Vanguard Cinema

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Reviews

Jane

Manhattan is the perfect setting for a story based on blurred lines between fantasy and reality, comedy and tragedy. I was really impressed with the originality of the script, and how well the whole thing was executed--especially considering it was Shelley's first feature. It made me want to see more films by female writer/directors, and especially ones about women in their twenties.

The scene in the movie where Donna calls her mother for help reminded me of a scene exactly like that in Maren Ade's THE FOREST FOR THE TREES. That movie was also written and directed by a young woman, I think a first feature, and came to mind as an interesting comparison. In both films, the protagonist is lonely in a city. It's a struggle for both, in very different ways, and when things are at their worst they do that childlike thing--they call mom. It was an understated scene that really resonated in both films.

In the interview on Keyframe, "At any given moment," Shelley says she likes directors with a clear vision, and that comes through in Sudden Manhattan. When Shelley made it, she really "took action," as her character tries to do so many times in the film.