Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
66 %
Reviews Counted: 35 Fresh: 23 Rotten:12 Average Rating: 6.2/10
Consensus:
Although not terribly focused, Hannah Takes the Stairs contains refreshing realism.
Runtime: 83 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 22, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Over the course of one hot post-graduate summer, Hannah (Greta Gerwig), falls precariously in and out of love. A breaker of hearts and chronically dissatisfied she finds herself drifting away from her newly unemployed boyfriend (Mark Duplass, THE PUFFY CHAIR) and drawn to two of her... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Greta Gerwig, Kent Osborne, Andrew Bujalski
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Reviews
Comment
Joe Swanberg's film wears out its welcome about halfway through its 83 minutes.
11/30/07
Top Critic
Swanberg can be playful behind the camera -- he has a taste for Godardian jump cuts -- and his sense of color is crisp. Gerwig, his millennial Jean Seberg, is no pixie; her captivating ordinariness helps hold the movie together.
10/26/07
Top Critic
No one involved seems to have any thoughts about why people are selfish and cruel to each other, but they're more than willing to complain about it.
10/18/07
Top Critic
Perfectly encapsulates the slow-motion, frustrated feeling of early adulthood, when longing and inchoate desire easily outnumber actual transformative events and achievements.
09/28/07
Top Critic
Performances help raise Hannah Takes the Stairs above the realm of self-indulgent cinema to something worth seeing.
09/27/07
Gerwig is a modest (like everything in Mumblecore) revelation in the role, with a lithe, teasing sexuality and a vibrant personality that seems to be darting off in as many directions as her tousled blonde hair.
09/27/07
Looks like it should be on an Off Off Off Broadway play in the Village...
09/15/07
Gerwig proves herself to be a charming screen presence who manages to make her character somehow appealing despite her utter self-involvement.
09/14/07
Top Critic
Hannah is charmingly self-absorbed without the extenuating circumstance of self-knowledge. Above all, she's young. The movie forgives her for that and, with occasional misgivings, so do we.
09/07/07
Top Critic
Hannah (Greta Gerwig), the peroxided heroine, leaps from one hookup to the next, but is she searching for passion or just treading water? In the new generational film movement that's been dubbed 'Mumblecore,' it's often hard to tell the difference.
09/05/07
Top Critic
Swanberg is accurately charting the social rituals of the young and inarticulate.
08/25/07
Note to anyone who stumbles into this snoozefest: forget about taking the stairs—head straight for the nearest exit.
08/24/07
Gerwig actually gives her insufferable character some verve -- the actress has potential -- but the remainder of the movie is a slice of life that doesn't much show much life.
08/24/07
The fumbling banalities spouted by the characters belie the prior achievements of the actors making them up.
08/23/07
Top Critic
[Actor] Gerwig [turns] her terminally anxious character into a poster girl for an entire subset of young women on the verge. Every generation gets the Darling they deserve. We now have ours.
08/23/07
Joe Swanberg’s charming comedy Hannah Takes the Stairs marks the Chicago-based filmmaker’s third feature, but his first to land theatrical distribution.
08/22/07
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