Smithereens: Desperately seeking Seidelman

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

Directed in 1982 by then NYU film student Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan, Sex and the City), Smithereens is an inverse love story about a group of borderline homeless, fame-seekers in the wake of a punk rock scene that has just reached its high watermark. Wearing its French New Wave and Fellini influences on its sleeve, Smithereens was the first American film to be included in the Palme d'Or competition at the Cannes film festival.

Wren (Susan Berman) has fled her cushy life in the New Jersey suburbs for the barren landscape of a pre-Giuliani East Village. Ostensibly there to start a band, but without talent or drive, she's unable to get anything started and settles for being seen -- as a sort of grimy, Warhol-era Paris Hilton. While wheatpasting xeroxed pictures of herself around the subway she meets the nice, but equally vapid, farmboy Paul (Brad Rijn) who becomes instantly infatuated with her. But she is oblivious to his feelings, experiencing her own crush on burned out rock star Eric (aptly played by the teetering on burnout Richard Hell) who brings her home but falls asleep and eventually takes off for LA without her. Wren is not a particularly enjoyable character to spend time with but Berman infuses her with such a genuine teenage brashness that one cannot help but cheer for her to fight against the inevitable backslide of her own creation.

Shooting for a meager $20,000 in real locations, Seidelman captures the decay of a scene and its inhabitants' last grasp at relevance before moving on or succumbing to total psychic self-immolation. The film is also one of the few of its kind with an authentic soundtrack (the Voidoids, the Feelies, ESG, etc.) instead of being given a pop upgrade upon its festival successes. Appearances by John Waters icon Cookie Mueller and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law and Order, Lifetime movies superstar) as a transvestite prostitute flesh out this film that no doubt kept more than a few Jersey kids from getting on that train.

DVD extras include director commentary, interviews with Susan Berman and Richard Hell, original trailer and still gallery.

See also: Daisies, Times Square, After Hours, 24 Hour Party People, Nights of Cabiria, Repo Man, Downtown 81.