Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

wvisser-leusden When it comes to catch the New York Underground 19-eighties-mood, 'Smithereens' hits it right. This film really makes a lovely reminder for everyone around at the time, as well as a perfect introduction for those who weren't.Of course 'Smithereens' music is quite in tune. Nevertheless, the most appealing part is made by its picturing. The fine use of colors truly stands out here.Be prepared to have yourself carried back to the depressive New York-eighties. 'Smithereens' surely won't fill you with joy, and is even a little boring at times. The female lead makes a skinny girl, representing those skinny times.

Peter Hayes In the era of Punk rock (well when America caught on anyway!) a sensitive would-be artist (Brad Rijn) and a female street hustler (Susan Berman) have an uneasy relationship in the less fashionable part of NYC.Susan Seidelman had a surprise hit with Desperately Seeking Susan straight after this and then she took a career nose dive. Maybe she doesn't have the ability to shout cut or somehow or some way falls in love with her own work. Or maybe she is too in love with off-beats and losers.This shows some power of observation (all street cliché boxes ticked), but little narrative drive. Just a semi-documentary about a time and a place that I'd rather not have been in or (given a time tunnel) want to go back to.With no money, no major talent and a script that looks like it was written in a week there isn't much hope for it - unless you are so in love with the punk rock scene that anything that references it counts as entertainment.

Woodyanders Ambitious, but aimless, amoral, abrasive and opportunistic Jersey girl hustler Wren (winningly played with considerable spunky panache by Susan Berman) tries desperately to break into the lower Manhattan music scene as a punk rock band manager, but since she has neither talent nor connections this proves to be a most difficult task to accomplish. While crashing around the city Wren makes the acquaintance of both Paul (a likable turn by Brad Rinn, who later starred in "Perfect Strangers" and "Special Effects" for Larry Cohen), a nice guy struggling artist who lives in his rundown jalopy of a van and Eric (a commendably fearless performance by punk icon Richard Hell of the Voidoids), a cocky, stuck-up narcissistic leech of a musician who ruthlessly uses other people to keep himself afloat.Directed with tremendously exciting style, verve and assurance by Susan Seidelman (who went on to helm "Desperately Seeking Susan" and several episodes of "Sex and the City"), this compellingly raw, gritty and funky little indie drama gem offers a very harsh, nightmarish and unflattering depiction of the East Village, pungently capturing the tart'n'tangy stench of urban squalor and despair in an unflinchingly stark and unsentimental manner (Seidelman's admirably obdurate refusal to either whitewash or romanticize the nastier aspects of the East Village punk culture is one of the movie's most substantial assets). The barbed, incisive script by Ron Nyswaner and Peter Askin relates the grim story in an engrossingly sharp, direct and brutally honest way, pulling no punches throughout and concluding things on a hauntingly downbeat note. Chirine El Khadem's rough, grainy, but dynamic and evocative cinematography, a first-rate thrashy'n'throbbing rock score by the Feelies, the often witty dialogue (favorite line: "Everyone's a little weird these days -- it's normal"), and the snappy editing further galvanize this thrillingly energetic film. An authentically scrappy and vibrant time capsule of the early 80's East Village bohemian punk alternative artistic fringe, "Smithereens" gets my highest possible recommendation.

machinabullet I watched this film probably about 2 years ago at some very early hour of the morning. The Smithereens was one of those films which was strangely compelling in an empty sort of way, there is this incredibly overpowering early 80's economically, socially and artistically bleak skew on everything. This feeling alone makes the film worth watching, and the completely disconnected and irrelevant life of the main character evokes strange emotions of sympathy and intense loneliness. I can't tell you much about the story-line other than it is following the life of a young woman who is a bit of a miscreant and is getting nowhere incredibly fast. Desolation, vacuity and depression at its best!