Chelsea Walls (2001)
Average Rating: 4/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 35
The meandering Chelsea Walls is more pretentious than poetic.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 11
The meandering Chelsea Walls is more pretentious than poetic.
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Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 1,522
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Movie Info
Actor Ethan Hawke takes the director's chair for a test drive with this independent feature, based on a play by Nicole Burdette, in which a number of creative types living in New York's famed bohemian enclave the Chelsea Hotel struggle with their muses as well as their personal concerns. Middle-aged novelist Bud (Kris Kristofferson) is having problems with his latest project, as well as his appetite for alcohol, while he juggles two relationships -- with his wife Greta (Tuesday Weld) and his
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Cast
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Kevin Corrigan
Crutches -
Rosario Dawson
Audrey -
Vincent D'Onofrio
Frank -
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Robert Sean Leonard
Terry -
Natasha Richardson
Mary -
Uma Thurman
Grace -
Mark Webber
Val -
Tuesday Weld
Greta -
Frank Whaley
Lynny -
Steve Zahn
Ross -
Jimmy Scott
Skinny Bones -
John Seitz
Dean -
Harris Yulin
Bud's Editor -
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Guillermo Díaz
Kid -
Matthew Del Negro
Rookie Cop
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All Critics (54) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (37) | DVD (9)
It is dead on the inside, never quite achieving the movements and emotional solidity the material demands.
Top CriticHawke's actors are a talented troupe, and even when things get self-indulgent and fuzzy-headed (and boy, do they!), interesting stuff is going on.
Movies like this do not grab you by the throat. You have to be receptive.
Were Dylan Thomas alive to witness first-time director Ethan Hawke's strained Chelsea Walls, he might have been tempted to change his landmark poem to, 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Theatre.'
The movie is essentially a series of fleetingly interesting actors' moments.
Hampered -- no, paralyzed -- by a self-indulgent script ... that aims for poetry and ends up sounding like satire.
Linklater fans, or pretentious types who want to appear avant-garde will suck up to this
...a disastrously ill-conceived drama...
Pretentious navel-gazing hoo-hah.
As you may know, this film is directed by Ethan Hawke. Nicely shot, well acted, fine direction, well-organized (for what it is), but short on both impact and message.
The film apparently takes place in a fantasy world where people in hotel hallways recite poetry in voice-over instead of speaking to each other.
This is a very ambitious project for a fairly inexperienced filmmaker, but good actors, good poetry and good music help sustain it.
A free-for-all of half-baked thoughts, clumsily used visual tricks and self-indulgent actor moments.
It's a beautifully accomplished lyrical meditation on a bunch of despondent and vulnerable characters living in the renown Chelsea Hotel ...
This thing is virtually unwatchable.
Pretension, in its own way, is a form of bravery. For this reason and this reason only -- the power of its own steadfast, hoity-toity convictions -- Chelsea Walls deserves a medal.
Not for the faint of heart, Chelsea Walls arrives just in time for anyone hankering for a really hot Beatnik summer.
A complete waste of time.
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