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01/09/09
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
58
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:45
Fresh:26
Rotten:19
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Although not terribly focused, Hannah Takes the Stairs contains refreshing realism.
Reviews for Hannah Takes the Stairs
Top CriticSmart and engaging, but too many meandering breeze-shooting sequences.
01/09/09
Top CriticWatchable independent drama from the mumblecore crowd, though it's not quite sharp enough, funny enough or insightful enough to really get off the ground and the characters are occasionally irritating.
01/09/09
It’s never enough to establish any sensitivity or social pertinence beyond the trifling tiffs which are playing out on screen.
01/09/09
Top CriticThe film meanders along in conversational style, encouraging improvisational realism but also the thought that maybe these middle-class characters, not quite slackers, are less interesting than they, or the director, think they are.
01/09/09
Less dazed and confused than mumbling and mundane, this drama focuses on social awkwardness and twentysomething blues. Skipping aimlessly from scene to scene it offers little observations and rewards low expectations.
01/09/09
Top CriticHannah Takes the Stairs, the latest comedy of mannerisms in the “mumblecore” style, is maddening for 60 of its 83 minutes.
01/09/09
There is something teeth-grindingly cutesy about the whole thing, reaching epic levels of dippiness in the, ahem, nude trumpet-playing scenes. That makes it sound interesting, come to think of it, and perhaps it is.
01/09/09
Top CriticFor every revelatory moment of sharp perception there’s an eternity of goofy smiles, stuttered dialogue and embarrassed glances.
01/09/09
There’s only so much twentysomething navel-gazing one can listen to before wanting to slap some sense — and some fully formed sentences — into them all.
01/09/09
Top CriticMost of the audience responded warmly to Hannah for its moments of sharp perception and its stringent, comic-wistful realism.
03/20/07
Performances help raise Hannah Takes the Stairs above the realm of self-indulgent cinema to something worth seeing.
09/27/07
[Director] Swanberg nails the inane fun of youth.
10/19/07
Top CriticPerfectly 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[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
Goes full blast on geek chatter.
07/07/08
Each film [director Swanberg] does is a little more of an evolution in style and form and Hannah Takes the Stairs is like watching a natural progression of talent.
03/24/07
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
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 CriticIt’s impossible to predict how the Mumblecorps will mature but, given their immersion in the moment, I suspect that the films they’ve made will age very well.
08/21/07
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