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Hannah Takes the Stairs
IFC Films


3.3

based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Greta Gerwig, Kent Osborne, Andrew Bujalski, Ry Russo-Young, Mark Duplass, Todd Rohal, Tipper Newton, and Kris Williams

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)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Joe Swanberg, Greta Gerwig, Kent Osborne Andrew Bujalski, Mark Duplass Ry Russo-Young Kevin Bewersdorf
DIRECTED BY:	Joe Swanberg
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 22, 2008 Theatrical: August 22, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	83 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

What really elevates Hannah Takes the Stairs is the truly outstanding performance by Greta Gerwig.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The film has no script; it goes from moment to moment unhurriedly.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

Though the dialogue feels improvised and honest, the movie is less honest in creating its world.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

Intimacy is graphically portrayed, down to recurring moments in a bathtub, including a memorable duet trumpet rendition of “The 1812 Overture.” Chop off a star if you’re not up for highly experimental cinema.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

How can a movie with such a charming cast (let's not forget Ry Russo-Young as Hannah's female roommate) and believable dialogue (seemingly taken from the actors' real lives) go wrong? It can't.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Doesn't rise to the level of Bujalski's breakthrough feature "Mutual Appreciation," mainly because Swanberg doesn't have Bujalski's eye.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Shot with intentionally banal anti-style - minimal soundtrack music, found sound, jitter-cam - the movie achieves a wisdom that's bigger than it seems.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Like most of the men in the film, we would happily follow her anywhere.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

There's something to be said for cinema this perversely naturalistic.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

What defines the slacker-geek twentysomething men and women who wander through Joe Swanberg's too-hip-to-be-romantic comedy Hannah Takes the Stairsis that they treat their libidos as minor accessories -- only to stammer through every casual conversation as if they were on a first Internet date.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

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.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

Less notable for its story than for what the movie itself represents: an evolutionary entry in the so-called Do It Yourself (or D.I.Y.) independent film movement.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Though it has merit and is recommended for the curious and adventurous, Joe Swanberg's film wears out its welcome about halfway through its 83 minutes. I'd say it doesn't go anywhere, but that's the point of these movies.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

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.

Variety Joe Leydon

Has the unmistakable look and feel of a micro-budget indie produced for a small circle of friends, many of whom are listed in the credits.

The average user rating for this movie is 3.3 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H. gave it a3:
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.

Shi T. gave it a10:
We got ourselves some angry reviewers. We put our emotions about drugs, laziness and strangely enough being white get in the way of our review! I bet they are both the same person! No one ever agrees on the internet.

Walter B gave it a1:
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.

Joe J. gave it a0:
This film is awful and entirely unrepresentative of our generation, unless of course we are all white, wealthy and unmotivated.

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Hannah Takes the Stairs IFC Films

Hannah Takes the Stairs
IFC Films