Margarita Happy Hour (2001)
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Theatrical Release: Mar 22, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: Zelda (Eleanor Hutchins) was queen of the artsy downtown scene in Brooklyn--until she decided to have a baby. What happens to the punk princess who becomes a single mom? It's not an easy transition. Her boyfriend, Max (played by indie director Larry Fessenden), who thinks he's the next Jack... Zelda (Eleanor Hutchins) was queen of the artsy downtown scene in Brooklyn--until she decided to have a baby. What happens to the punk princess who becomes a single mom? It's not an easy transition. Her boyfriend, Max (played by indie director Larry Fessenden), who thinks he's the next Jack Kerouac and has a taste for womanizing, alcohol and violence, is little help. To make matters worse, her friends gravitate toward cocaine and very loud music. Zelda tries in vain to sing her baby to sleep as the walls of her communal Brooklyn loft vibrate to the beat of the party. She finds some respite in her weekly meetings with a group of other "floozy" moms, who bring their toddlers to the margarita happy hour at a local bar. There, the women trade stories and support each other through their difficult journey of young motherhood. Zelda is able to scrape by, picking up some cash as a freelance illustrator for a porn magazine. But after her rock-chick junkie pal, Natali (Holly Ramos), comes back into her life, Zelda starts to wonder whether perhaps it's time for the party to end. Director Ilya Chaiken was herself a single mother living in New York while making this film, and her experiences surely have helped give the characters and story the ring of truth. The film's quintet of single women (reminiscent of the characters on SEX AND THE CITY) are not very glamorous--they are earthy and raw, dealing with the hard realities of trying to mix motherhood with their alternative lifestyles. In their own ways, they succeed. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Eleanor Hutchins, Larry Fessenden, Holly Ramos, Barbara Sicuranza, Amanda Vogel
DVD Info
Release:
Aug 20, 2002
DVD Features:
- Region 0
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85:1
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers
Interactive Features:
- Scene Access
- Interactive Menus
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Highly uneven and inconsistent ... Margarita Happy Hour kinda resembles the el cheapo margaritas served within.
A miniscule little bleep on the film radar, but one that many more people should check out
The strength of Hutchins' performance and the open-endedness of Chaiken's film keep Zelda vivid long after the fade-out.
It's a pedestrian, flat drama that screams out 'amateur' in almost every frame.
Effective in all its aspects, Margarita Happy Hour represents an auspicious feature debut for Chaiken.
With its parade of almost perpetually wasted characters ... Margarita feels like a hazy high that takes too long to shake.
The film is like sitting in a downtown café, overhearing a bunch of typical late-twenty-somethings natter on about nothing, and desperately wishing you could change tables.
One of those rare films that seems as though it was written for no one, but somehow manages to convince almost everyone that it was put on the screen, just for them.
Its portrait of a very unsung sector of society is refreshingly honest and entertaining.
[Chaiken's] talent lies in an evocative, accurate observation of a distinctive milieu and in the lively, convincing dialogue she creates for her characters.
A joyful celebration of female friendship and an unusually honest look at newly responsible young women wistfully saying goodbye to the dreams of their youth.
The film's ensemble portrait of women caught between nostalgia for the tough and free-spirited babes they were ... and uncertainty about what their futures hold is almost painfully on target.
Ms. Hutchins is talented enough and charismatic enough to make us care about Zelda's ultimate fate.
Chaiken ably balances real-time rhythms with propulsive incident.


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