Review of Sudden Manhattan (1996) by Eric R — 11 Jul 2011

Adrienne Shelly's directorial debut film, Sudden Manhattan is a refreshing, intellectual, hyper-real look into a group of young Manhattanites just trying to be happy in their lives and figure out the purpose of it all.

Donna, our main protagonist, is a job-less, man-less, bored woman who has no idea what she is even doing on this earth; she si bored senseless. One day while walking down the streets of Manhattan, she witnesses a man pull a gun and shoot another man.

She tries to report it, but the police right her off as crazy. A few days later, she witness the exact same thing happen again on the same street. At this point, Donna begins to fear for her sanity. Sudden Manhattan is a dark, dry comedy in the vein of Hal Hartley.

A decent amount of the film features Donna's inner dialogue which is almost always funny and entertaining to listen too. Donna is surrounded by strange characters likes Adam, a weird intellectual type who loves russian literature but, as he puts it, "hasnt figured out how to use his penis yet" or the fortune teller she meets, who is the most pessimistic person in the world.

This is a wacky flick, that really does kinda sum up the craziness of life and in the end its up to oneself to define their life. Hal Hartley must have be proud of Adrienne Shelly for this film.