Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 12 Ratings

  • Summary: Hannah, a recent college graduate, spends a brutally hot Chicago summer falling in and out of love. As she struggles to find personal and professional fulfillment through various relationships with friends and coworkers, she risks leaving destruction in her wake. Working collaboratively with his cast, which features several prominent independent filmmakers, Joe Swanberg follows up his previous efforts, "Kissing on the Mouth" and "LOL", with this delicate look at friendship, ambition, and the pursuit of happiness. (IFC Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 15
  2. Negative: 2 out of 15
  1. Reviewed by: Don R. Lewis
    80
    What really elevates Hannah Takes the Stairs is the truly outstanding performance by Greta Gerwig.
  2. The film has no script; it goes from moment to moment unhurriedly.
  3. 60
    The film's intimacy never feels fake, it's sporadically and unpredictably funny (I didn't exactly enjoy the cacophonous trumpet duet of the "1812 Overture," but I won't soon forget it), and the nonprofessional cast is surprisingly good.
  4. 38
    The loose, rambling conversations that substitute for action might be more interesting if any of the characters were capable of real introspection. But they're so shallow and distracted they can't even manage sustained navel-gazing, which makes their so-called relationships profoundly uninteresting.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 4 out of 6
  1. This is actually one of the best films i've ever seen...
  2. JayH.
    3
    Very low budget independent film, I suppose there is supposed to be some deep significance to the movie, but I was too bored to care about what that might be. It seemed like a home movie to me, and not an interesting one at that. Expand
  3. WalterB
    1
    Joe's review says it all. It takes seven writers to write something this bland and disgustingly white? Go back to your bongs and give the camera back to Bujalski. At least he writes his garbage alone. Expand
  4. PeterK.
    0
    I thought Paris Hilton could not make movies until I saw this waste of time - now she seems like an Academy Award winner. Plotless, pointless and banal - and hand-held filming to boot - Hannah Takes the Stairs is Cloverfield without the monster. Watch the trailer and save your time. Expand

See all 6 User Reviews