One of the most interesting and enjoyable films to emerge from the mumblecore movement, which David Denby writes about this week in the magazine, is Joe Swanberg’s 2007 romantic comedy “Hannah Takes the Stairs.” It features Greta Gerwig, a key presence in the group both as actress and co-director (with Swanberg on “Nights and Weekends”), as a young intellectual woman working at a production company and playing Goldilocks to three male bears before finding the one who’s just right. She’s just one of the many cast members who’s utterly convincing playing a smart person who says what she thinks (it’s surprisingly rare), and Swanberg structures all their doings not just around love but also money. The movie takes place in the summertime in Chicago, and Hannah takes the stairs and the bus and she has no air-conditioning (none of her friends have it either); making the practical implications of their educated penury so palpable is, in its way, a kind of political filmmaking. In the clip below, I comment on the film and, in particular, a scene featuring Gerwig and Ry Russo-Young.
DVD of the Week: Hannah Takes the Stairs
