Rent Smithereens (1982)
3.4 of 5 from 59 ratings
1h 33min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Susan Seidelman established her distinctive vision of New York City with this debut feature, the lo-fi original for her vibrant portraits of women reinventing themselves. After escaping New Jersey, the quintessential punk Wren (Susan Berman) - a spark plug in fishnets - moves to the city with the mission of becoming famous. When not pasting up self-promotional flyers or hanging at the Peppermint Lounge, she's getting involved with Paul (Brad Rinn), the nicest guy to ever live in a van next to the highway, and Eric (Richard Hell), an aloof rocker. Shot on 16 mm film that captures the grit and glam of downtown in the 1980's, with an alternately moody and frenetic soundtrack by the Feelies and others, Smithereens - the first American independent film to compete for the Palme d'Or - is an unfaded snapshot of a bygone era. - Actors:
- Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell, Nada Despotovich, Roger Jett, Kitty Summerall, Joni Ruth White, D.J. O'Neill, Joel Rooks, Pamela Speed, Tom Cherwin, Edie Schecter, Katherine Riley, Amos Poe, Ada McSpade, Cookie Mueller, Ed French, Alan Woolf, The Nitecaps, X-Sessive
- Directors:
- Susan Seidelman
- Producers:
- Susan Seidelman
- Writers:
- Susan Seidelman, Ron Nyswaner, Peter Askin
- Studio:
- Blue Underground
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Special Interest
- Collections:
- All the Twos: 1972-2012, A Brief History of Film...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 27/08/2018
- Run Time:
- 93 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Seidelman
- New interviews with Seidelman and actor Susan Berman
- And You Act Like One Too (1976) and Yours Truly, Andrea G. Stern (1979), two early shorts by Seidelman, with new introductions by the director
- An essay by critic Rebecca Bengal
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Reviews (1) of Smithereens
The City That Eats Its Young - Smithereens review by griggs
New York’s not just a backdrop here—it’s a third lead, grimy, wearing last night’s sweat like war paint, the kind of city where ambition curdles fast. Susan Seidelman shoots the dying days of the punk scene with the cracked energy of someone who’s lived it—no sheen, no sentimentality. Just grit, fumes and disappointment.
Wren, played with feral charm by Susan Berman, is a walking collage of borrowed cool and survival instinct. She wants fame—or at least to be near it—but the dream’s already expired, peeling like posters on a lamppost. She’s hard to root for, and that’s the point. She’s not selling out; there’s nothing left to sell. Richard Hell drifts through like a ghost of what might’ve been, but it’s the city that steals it—burning, buzzing, broken.
The whole film feels like a bruised mixtape: DIY, off-key, strangely compelling. Not a punk anthem, but maybe the B-side you keep coming back to.
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