''Chelsea Walls'' is a 2001 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, author, and film director. He made his film debut in ''Explorers (film), Explorers'' (1985), before making a breakthrough performance in ''Dead Poets Society'' (1989). Hawke starr ...

in his directorial debut and written by Nicole Burdette, based on her 1990 play of the same name. It stars

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...

Uma Thurman Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 cover ...

, Robert Sean Leonard,

Tuesday Weld Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld; August 27, 1943) is a retired American actress. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcome ...

in her final film, Kevin Corrigan, Bianca Hunter, Vincent D'Onofrio, Natasha Richardson and Rosario Dawson. The story takes place in the historic

Chelsea Hotel The Hotel Chelsea (also known as the Chelsea Hotel and the Chelsea) is a hotel at 222 West 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street in the Chelsea, Manhattan, Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1883 and 1884, the hot ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. ''Cheslea Walls'' premiered at the 2001 Woodstock Film Festival, and was released in theaters in the United States on April 19, 2002, by Lions Gate Films.

Plot

The film tells five stories of a number of artists as they spend a single day in New York's famed bohemian home

, struggling with their arts and personal lives.

Cast

as Bud *

as Grace * Robert Sean Leonard as Terry Olsen * Vincent D'Onofrio as Frank * Natasha Richardson as Mary * Rosario Dawson as Audrey * Mark Webber as Val * Frank Whaley as Lynny Barnum * Kevin Corrigan as "Crutches" * Guillermo Díaz as Kid * Bianca Hunter as Lorna Doone * Matthew Del Negro as Rookie Cop * Paz de la Huerta as Girl * Paul Failla as Cop * Duane McLaughlin as Wall *

Jimmy Scott James Victor Scott (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014), known professionally as Little Jimmy Scott or Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs. After ...

as "Skinny Bones" * John Seitz as Dean * Mark Strand as Journalist * Heather Watts as Ballerina *

as Greta *

Harris Yulin Harris Bart Goldberg (November 5, 1937 – June 10, 2025), known professionally as Harris Yulin, was an American actor who appeared in over a hundred film and television series roles, such as '' Night Moves'' (1975; filmed in 1973) with Gene Hack ...

as Bud's Editor * Steve Zahn as Ross * Sam Connelly,

Richard Linklater Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...

, and Peter Salett as Cronies

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 26% of 47 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.2/10, earning it a score of "Rotten". The website's critics consensus reads, "The meandering ''Chelsea Walls'' is more pretentious than poetic." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film three stars out of four, claiming: "Movies like this do not grab you by the throat. You have to be receptive. The first time I saw "Chelsea Walls," in a stuffy room late at night at Cannes 2001, I found it slow and pointless. This time, I saw it earlier in the day, fueled by coffee, and I understood that the movie is not about what the characters do, but about what they are. It may be a waste of time to spend your life drinking, fornicating, posing as a genius and living off your friends, but if you've got the money, honey, take off the time."Roger Ebert review of ''Chelsea Walls''
RogerEbert.com; accessed July 4, 2015.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chelsea Walls 2001 films 2001 directorial debut films 2001 drama films 2001 independent films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s spy films American drama films American films based on plays American independent films American spy films Camcorder films Films about music and musicians Films about suicide Films directed by Ethan Hawke Films produced by Christine Vachon Films scored by Jeff Tweedy Films set in hotels Films set in Manhattan Films shot in New York City IFC Films films Killer Films films Lionsgate films English-language independent films English-language drama films