Criterion Month is in full effect here at Mildly Pleased. If you haven’t been checking in and stumble across this post by accident, we’re reviewing films from the Criterion Collection every day in chronological order. For my films I chose the theme “First Time Filmmakers”. A theme that not only narrows down the catalog, it gives me the opportunity to experience filmmaking in its most uninhibited form. Though it wasn’t until I watched Susan Seidelman’s punk debut Smithereens that I noticed similarities to the film’s I’ve already watched. Not all of them share a connective tissue—And God Created Woman and Night of the Living Dead being outliers—but between Shadows, Ivan’s Childhood, and now Smithereens I see how debut filmmakers most often introduce themselves to the world.
‘Who am I?” It’s not just a great Jackie Chan movie it’s the question these debut filmmakers set out to answer. Debut films are filmmakers giving us a glimpse into what goes on inside their head. It’s showing us their world, whether that world is Cold War-era Russia or the harsh streets of New York City. In Smithereens it’s the latter. Jersey runaway Wren (Susan Berman) is punk by every sense of the word (except for the music) who spends her days promoting herself. Striving to become a punk legend, Wren staples photocopied pictures of herself all over the city with the words “WHO IS THIS?” But like many young kids, Wren has no idea what she’s doing. She’s homeless, she mugs women on the subway goes to sketchy places and meets sketchier people.
One of the not-sketchy people Wren meets is Paul (Brad Rijn) a good-hearted young man from Montana with a van and a sense of adventure. Attracted to Wren, he tries to form a friendship only to be continually shut down. Wren instead takes advantage of Paul’s generosity by sleeping in his van and later convincing him to break into the apartment she’s been kicked out to get her stuff back. It’s an awkward relationship that’s doomed from the start and you know this is the kind of movie where nothing ever works out.
Another common theme in debut films, particularly indie-art house films like the ones I’ve been watching is “LIFE SUCKS.” Most of the debut movies I’ve watched don’t have happy endings. Life doesn’t work that way. Life ebbs and flows and doesn’t end, at least not until you die. Smithereens is a window into a world that doesn’t have a storybook ending. Life is hard, people are cruel, and it never ends. It may sound like a bummer and in many ways Smithereens is a bummer but it’s genuine. It’s a film of real human emotions. As long as you’re a human there’s something you can relate with.
One human you don’t want to relate with is Eric, played surprisingly well by real-life punk legend Richard Hell. You know he’s gonna be a jerk because his last name is HELL. Eric is a burned-out punk star known for his one hit in the ‘70s. Wren is drawn to the washed-up sleazeball who tells her if she wants to become a punk star they have to go to L.A. together, not New York. This leads Wren into another undesirable situation involving sex and theft and events spiral further out of control.
If it sounds like I haven’t touched on much plot that’s because there isn’t much plot to touch on. I find the “wandering narrative” as I call it to be prevalent in debut films because the filmmaker is still finding themselves. Or can’t afford to have more stuff happening. In the case of the three films I hit on at the beginning of my post, none of these debuts went on to be the filmmaker’s most important film. Whether it’s his best or not, A Woman Under the Influence is often Shadows’ director John Cassavetes defining work. For Andre Tarkovsky, it’s the slow burn sci-fi epic Solaris, and for our filmmaker in question today, Susan Seidelman, it’s the cult ‘80s favorite Desperately Seeking Susan. Though I’ll make a case for Seidelman’s She Devil (1989). I loved that movie as a kid and it’s probably the only time in history Roseanne Barr could have co-headlined a film with Meryl Streep. The ‘80s man.
Smithereens isn’t the most exciting film. It’s kind of a bummer too. But it feels expressive. I don’t know if Susan Seidelman ever went through a punk phase while going to film school in New York but the film feels like it came from somewhere personal. If anything the film feels like New York in the way Seidelman views it. NYC was/is a city of rejects and burnouts and with trash everywhere. Yet underneath all that trash is humanity. This is a no-frills, no BS, human story. The performances feel genuine, the setting is genuine, and the gritty ghost of punk music haunts every frame.
Almost forgot the film’s kickass soundtrack by The Feelies. Have you heard the Feelies? They kick ass.