Synopsis
With appearances by Nick Zedd, Johnny Thunders, Dee Dee Ramone, Rockets Redglare and Richard Hell
After a family tragedy, a young woman finds herself homeless and living on the streets of New York.
What About Me
1993 Directed by Rachel Amodeo
Cast
Genre
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USA
12 Dec 1993
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US Virgin Islands
Releases by Country
US Virgin Islands
12 Dec 1993
- Theatrical
USA
10 Jan 1993
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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Down and out in the East Village; if Amodeo’s meandering vision of so many hipster non sequiturs (“Can I have a beautiful milkshake for my vanilla girlfriend?”) and post-punk rants distinguishes itself (barely) from the wave of post-Seidelman, post-Jarmusch downtown ennui, it’s that Lisa’s wanderings are sympathetically envisioned as a matter of real life or death. Orphaned, assaulted, abandoned, and evicted; the sudden ease with which one can find oneself slipped into the other side of what used to be taken for granted as civility and comfort. “You know how many people have nowhere to go in this city?” As she finds herself drifting from one pocket of drop-outs to another, what emerges – for better or for worse –…
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What About Me is lo-fi misery from New York's scuzzier days. The film by Rachel Amodeo co-stars a host of underground figures including Richard Hell, Nick Zedd and Dee Dee Ramone. The pacing drags at times and the acting quality varies, but the movie definitely has value as an early '90s time capsule from a perspective decidedly outside the mainstream.
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it feels intuitive to mark this as a late entry in, or throwback to, cinema of transgression with its unflinching portrayal of the more downtrodden side of NYC in the early 90s (and Nick Zedd's involvement) but it feels more in line with the verite films being shot in the city decades prior, particularly Lionel Rogosin's On the Bowery, a similarly monochromatic portrayal of specific neighborhoods and denizens of the city that is simultaneously hopeful and cynical -- some truly beautiful shots in here, might be one of the all time great nyc movies, if judged solely on the power and versatility of its footage (especially its Statue of Liberty climax)
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Rachel Amodeo’s WHAT ABOUT ME is a classic 90s New York indie. Like STRANGER THAN PARADISE it’s shot in grainy b&w, like RHYTHM THIEF it has a playful, meandering structure, and like SMITHEREENS it’s packed with CBGB musicians (Dee Dee Ramone! Richard Hell! Johnny Thunders!). There’s a kooky, Nickelodeon fisheye feel to it. And reincarnation. What it lacks in a tight plot it makes up for in its pregentrification anthropology and atmosphere. If you love Susan Seidelman’s SMITHEREENS like I do, this one is a gem. (Keep an eye out for NY indie regular Rockets Redglare* as an evil landlord.)
*there are depictions of sexual violence, fyi
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A slice of pizza will feed you for right now; what I can tell you will feed you forever
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Criterion Channel.
WOW. Really loved this American independent, gritty gem. Such a smart, feminine, effortless and intelligent portrayal of falling into misfortune (unmelodramatic and not taxing here, actually gives you the opportunity to sink in, as opposed to being emotionally bombarded to the point of repulsion, and therefore receiving no impact), navigating homelessness, and strong but subtle commentary. I’m normally not a “THIS SHOT DESIGN AND CINEMATOGRAPHY WAS” sort of film commentator but…….. this was so smart. Never over-glorifying a moment or ‘flexing’, but continuously finding creative ways to evoke a moment and really place you there, not just in the experience, but the emotion. Also this film stock is something else, these blacks are so luscious and truly pop.…
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At one point our heroine (writer/director/producer/star Rachel Amodeo) walks into a party as the opening notes of "Another Girl, Another Planet" play on the soundtrack, and the reverse shot reveals Richard Hell in attendance.
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I really like learning about the late 1970s and early 1980s NYC art scene--Punk and No Wave, and the Theater of Transgression, and such. This film reflects an unadulterated NYC from that time, kind of crumbling and shady, and frequented by artists, and musicians, and characters of all sorts. So real, and awesome, and no sellouts in sight. Watching this is like becoming immersed in a living art project from that time. You get to go to a bar where Richard Hell is hanging out, and then a mopey, whiny Nick Zedd walks in and sits down, and then Johnny Thunders calls on a pay phone, and then Dee Dee Ramone appears. This is also a really empathetic portrait of…
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Like a lot of mildly Jarmusch-y films from the period, it suffers from its lackadaisical plotting at times, but as a snapshot of a time and place, it's hard to beat. It's criminal that Amodeo hasn't made another film since, but the East Village she depicts here doesn't exist anymore; maybe What About Me? is the only obituary it needs.
Plus: I'm never going to give a movie with a member of the Ramones in a top hat under 3.5 stars. Mark my words.