Smithereens (1982)

• Year: 1982
• Released: 25 Feb 1983
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084698/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/smithereens
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/smithereens
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama, Music
• Runtime: 93 min
• Writer: Susan Seidelman, Ron Nyswaner, Peter Askin
• Director: Susan Seidelman
• Cast: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell
• Keywords: woman director, punk rock, wildlife, free spirit, price of fame,

	6.8/10
	72/100
	100% – Critics
	60% – Audience

Smithereens Storyline

Originally from New Jersey, a place she vows never to return, Wren is a wannabe punk musician in Greenwich Village. In reality, she wants to be famous but not really do anything to achieve that fame. She is a hanger-on, latching herself to anyone she thinks can help her. Her sole modus operandi is self-promotion, as opposed to doing anything even remotely related to music in her own right. The person who she tries to latch herself onto the most is Eric, a musician who has some renown from playing in the local clubs. On the most part, Eric gets out of Wren what he wants, which has nothing to do with her music, and throws her away after he’s done. In her self-promotion, she squanders away what little money she has, being behind four months in rent and threatened for eviction. She catches the eye of Paul, a young man recently arrived from Montana, he who lives out of his broken-down painted Econoline van parked down by the highway where the hookers hang out. As such, he is mobile in that he sees New York only as a temporary stop from where he can drive away. After spending some time with Wren, Paul can see she is only using him, only being with him when she has no where else to go, but he can’t help but always take her back, when she does come back, which is all the time. She treats him much as Eric treats her, something she chooses not to see. Wren’s actions are ratcheted up a notch when she decides her fortunes lie in Los Angeles, if only she had a way to get there…

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Smithereens Movie Reviews

Doesn’t Make It In New York Or Anywhere

Susan Seidelman seems to have had a decent career with a few top notch credits under her belt. I’m certainly glad she bounced back from this film which seems to have its admirers. I’m not one of them.

I’ve seen better acting in high school plays than I did in Smithereens. The plot such as it is involved young Susan Berman who is ambitious to make it in the world of music and is willing to do just about anything to get there. She even rejects the sincere advances of a young artist who is living out of his van off the East River played by Brad Rijn.

Young Mr. Rijn contributes the worst performance in the film, in fact one of the worst acting jobs I’ve seen in a long time. No wonder he’s not gone anywhere.

I will say that Seidelman’s eye for the camera is a good one in capturing the familiar East Village locations where the film was mostly shot. But her work with her live performers didn’t measure up. I’m not sure she had that much raw material to work with.

Look fast and you’ll see a very young Christopher Noth before Law and Order and Sex in the City as a street hustler.

If you like punk rock, you might sit through this for the soundtrack. I’ll stick to Bing Crosby.

a moment in time and place

The movie starts with Wren stealing a pair of outrageous sunglasses from a lady in the NYC subway. She’s putting up flyers promoting herself in the hopes of gaining a foothold in the punk scene. She sees herself as an upstart promoter. She schemes and scrape but mostly she’s at the bottom of the barrel. The punk scene is moving to L.A. while NY music is advancing in other genres. Paul is infatuated the first moment he sees her in the subway. He tries to date her but she treats him poorly. She gets locked out of her apartment after failing to pay the rent. While on a date with Paul, she meets Eric from a defunct one-hit-wonder punk band Smithereens.

This starts well as a fascinating look into a time and a place. Wren is an interesting character although Paul is a bit too pathetic. It’s too bad that neither actors are terribly charismatic. It’s a small indie and it may be asking too much to discover some future star. This is a life slowly grinding downwards. It’s a bit tiring to see her life go to naught as nothing ever seems to work. It’s a worthy first feature from indie director Susan Seidelman.

An authentically gritty & vivid time capsule of the early 80’s East Village scene

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.