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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.
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.
Top CriticSmart and engaging, but too many meandering breeze-shooting sequences.
Top CriticClick to read the article
Top CriticHannah Takes the Stairs, the latest comedy of mannerisms in the “mumblecore” style, is maddening for 60 of its 83 minutes.
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.
Top CriticFor every revelatory moment of sharp perception there’s an eternity of goofy smiles, stuttered dialogue and embarrassed glances.
The 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.
It’s never enough to establish any sensitivity or social pertinence beyond the trifling tiffs which are playing out on screen.
Top CriticThere’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.
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.
The unexpected appeal of this seeming non-story is cumulative; what begins as a maddening portrait of a microcosm of liberal, well-educated white kids (with the occasional ethnic friend) steadily grows on you.
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.
Swanberg is accurately charting the social rituals of the young and inarticulate.
[Director] Joe Swanberg has an uncanny talent for making the randomness of downtime feel as alive as it seems generationally true.
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.
Click to read the article
[Director] Swanberg nails the inane fun of youth.
Top CriticChop off a star if you're not up for highly experimental cinema.
Looks like it should be on an Off Off Off Broadway play in the Village...
A low-key and enjoyable film with a cast consisting mostly of other indie filmmakers and writers.
April 21, 2008:
RT on DVD: Cloverfield, Charlie Wilson and 2008's Worst-Reviewed Film
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Slusho, whatever that is! Cloverfield stomps its way onto DVD as not only the most exciting new release of the week, but the one most... More...
August 23, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Champ Is No Chump; Nanny Is Dire, Bean is No Holiday, Dawn Needs Rescue
This week at the multiplex, you'll have your choice between babysitters (The Nanny Diaries, starring Scarlett Johansson and Laura Linney) manchilds (Mr. Bean's Holiday, starring... More...
August 22, 2007:
RTIndie: IFC Beefs Up On-Demand
This week at RTIndie: IFC brings indies to the people; Seth Gordon capitalizes on the success of The King of Kong; anime classic Grave of the Fireflies gets the remake... More...
August 21, 2007:
RT Talks With Hannah Takes the Stairs' Joe Swanberg
Joe Swanberg is a busy man. Since 2005, he's completed three films (Kissing on the Mouth, LOL, and Hannah Takes the Stairs), is finishing up his fourth, has helmed two seasons... More...
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