Chelsea Walls

Chelsea Walls is not the usual film, that somehow all of the characters and their stories are inter-related. In 'Walls', none of the characters and their stories touch one another. This is what makes it more life-like, because all of us know that this is reality and not the movies. This film requires the participation of the audience in viewing it, there are many fascinating characters who are telling fascinating stories, just watch and listen. Finally, it is about Americans who are still 'On the Road' for that career in the arts and the experiences that they have and the people that enter their lives while they are on that journey. It is somewhat in the genre of Jack Kerouac, the difference being that this is a group of total strangers who never connect with each other, just with life.

My first home in NYC was the YMCA across the street from the Chelsea Hotel and thus I feel qualified to say that Ethan Hawke's new film "Chelsea Walls" provides a very authentic glimpse into the lives of classic New York starving artists. Shot entirely on DV, the intimate grit of the daily struggle for love, inspiration, food, and cab fare is reminiscent of Vinterberg's 1998 dogma film "The Celebration" which Hawke affirms was an inspiration for this project. Take a peek into the lives in a few of the rooms in the legendary Chelsea Hotel in "Chelsea Walls", opening 19 April 2002.

The eclectic cast of characters includes: On-again, off-again married couple with no discernable legal occupation (Mark Webber & Rosario Dawson). A lonely waitress and moody painter with highly-charged yet unrequited chemistry (Vincent D'Onofrio & Uma Thurman). Minnesota musicians desperately searching for purpose, but enjoying Wally and the Beavers in the meantime (Robert Sean Leonard & Steve Zahn). And an emotionally-distant alcoholic writer who draws inspiration from the passion of both his lover and his wife (Kris Kristofferson, Tuesday Weld & Natasha Richardson).

The residents don't seem to have money to turn on the lights, so most of the time I can't even see who is talking. There are many scenes that contain incomprehensible monologues which are superimposed onto irrelevant visuals. The numerous characters and the unrelated stories make the whole film impossible to understand for me.

I connect with what this thing is supposed to be, but the substance of these artists is poor. Nothing we see from them rises above the level of teenage poetry. The Chelsea Hotel is still a mecca for poets and artists, even if today it's more a mecca for kids of Kerouac. This movie shows the Chelsea as a mecca for 21st century sulking hipsters who learned hippy-dom from Woodstock DVDs. I don't think that's accurate. If you take away the artist premise and the reputation of the Chelsea as a setting, and replace it with a college dorm full of political science majors, you'd have an equally fascinating film.

But I find the building, the inside of that building, to be beautiful.

The non-linear story of "Chelsea Walls" is an atmospheric collage of a variety of stories. What brings the film its merit is the performance of Kris Kristofferson. Finally, he's given some material to express his talents and delivers a passionately, brooding performance. He sucks in the essence of his drunken-has-been writer, and expels it for all to witness and reflect. If there's one reason to see this film, it's for Kris.