Punk classic from Susan Siedelman, director of Desperately Seeking Susan
DVD Release date: 2nd June 2008
Running time: 89 minutes
RRP: £15.99
Cert: 15
Extras: Feature only
THE WORLD BELONGS TO WREN. She’s nineteen and awash in the boundless energy of someone determined to make it big in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The pieces of her world are scattered over lower Manhattan: the abandoned train yards along the Hudson River; a grungy Lower East Side tenement; the copy shop where she works; and most of all, the helter skelter world of East Village rock clubs, like the Peppermint Lounge. It doesn’t matter that that Wren can’t sing, or play an instrument, or write songs; or that her aggressiveness is often rewarded with a black eye or busted lip. Desperation makes people do dangerous things.
Susan Seidelman’s first feature rocked the world of cinema, winning acclaim from Cannes to Hollywood. She went on to bigger projects like Desperately Seeking Susan and She-Devil, but Smithereens, with its barbed wire humor and indefatigable heroine, remains a classic of American independent cinema.
