Search - Hannah Takes the Stairs on DVD

Hannah ruins the movie...

Diane Moore | 09/14/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"To start off, I love independent film. I love low-budget films. After all, Clerks (Collector's Series) was a low budget film. But, that movie was entertaining and funny. This movie seemed to have no redeeming value.

Hannah is a twenty-something intern at a production company. She starts off with one boyfriend, and quickly gets rid of him, because she likes someone else that she is working with. He starts to get a little stale as well, so she replaces him with the other guy that they are working with.

I would find it more interesting if there was a script intact. I could deal with ad-libbing if it were amusing or enjoyable, (not to say that this was ad-libbed, but it seems as though it was) but most of the time, you had to listen carefully, because there was a lot of mumbling, and to be honest, the characters weren't that compelling. They also seemed as if they could learn some social skills as well.

And, of course, there is Hannah. She seems to be floating through life, not a care in the world, except for who she is going to sleep with next. She wasn't intelligent like the men at work claimed. She was so self absorbed, so annoying, and it was really hard to listen to her voice, quite honestly. I have read many books and seen movies where the characters are not good people or I don't empathize with them, but at least in those situations, the characters were intriguing! The conversations were so awkward, with so many pregnant pauses, and everyone interrupting each other. It was like not being able to look away from a car crash.

My boyfriend walked out of the room halfway through, but I decided to stick it out, just in case it got better. I hardly ever write really negative reviews like this, unless something is really terrible."

The camera does more than just 'record', ya know...

Rosshalde | 08/04/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Transitionally and historically speaking, the entire canon of independent filmmaking has derived from a basic desire to be `anti-Hollywood;' a reaction to the sameness associated with mainstream films. But this movement known as Mumblecore became its own cookie-cutter, like putting up a mirror in front of something and calling the reflection the original. These films are so ingrained within Hollywood ideology, I wouldn't be surprised if big budget films started moving into this aesthetic for stylistic intent. Indie films in the past were reflexive of the politics of the era in order to challenge (for lack of a better term) 'mainstream' ideals in regards to cinema; this new mode of digital filmmaking has made an absolute economy out of it.

Hannah is a basic plot; a bored girl has boring relationships, finds love, the end.
Stylistically, we're dealing with an absolute bare bones project: The film keeps `on location,` the location typically being two or three sparsely decorated houses; the mise-en-scene is kept quite minimal. The cameras are also completely framed with a handheld `home video' look, exemplifying both the digital video era we are currently living in, as well as evoking a type of YouTube-esque exhibitionism.
It's the content of Hannah that is so perplexingly frustrating; there is nothing that the text could be saying. The director is aiming for 'naturalized' acting, 'naturalized' situations, and 'ultimate realism.' But for what purpose? 'To document a generation.' Well, then do a documentary; don't create an absolutely facetious representation that is inherently speaking to absolutely nothing. What's the point of creating if there's no creativity?

Cheapening form and content, in the sense, is another example of capitalistic deterioration of quality in favor of quantity also inspires the "I can do that" phenomenon; audience members view these cheap, `technically unfinished' films, get the idea to make their own, and in the process lessen the quality even further as time progresses. Look at how many filmmakers have emerged due to the "YouTube phenomenon," which transcends any sort of filmic value to the mode of a home video camera and digital assets. "By changing the world they exist in through labor," Dallas Smythe argues, "human beings at the same time alter their own nature, for the lives of people are influenced both by what they produce and how they produce."

Scary concept if this is what my generation is calling a 'film movement representative of our culture.'"