Write When You Get Work
| Write When You Get Work | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Stacy Cochran |
| Written by | Stacy Cochran |
| Produced by | Alison Beckett Adam Gibbs Jesse Ozeri Stacy Cochran |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
| Edited by | Nicholas Ramirez |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Write When You Get Work is a 2018 American comedy drama film written and directed by Stacy Cochran and starring Finn Wittrock, Rachel Keller, Scott Cohen, Jessica Hecht and Emily Mortimer. The film follows Ruth, a South Brooklyn native working at a Manhattan private school for girls, who becomes involved in a plot to help out the daughter of a less privileged family.[1][2]
Plot[edit]
Ruth Duffy is working to establish a clean slate on the lower rungs of the Upper East Side, having left a life of petty crime. She currently works as an "interim" in the admissions office of an exclusive private school. The student body of the school is mostly white, as the costs of attending the school prevents children from less privileged backgrounds from attending. Ruth's attempts to go straight are complicated when one day, she runs into Jonny, her high school boyfriend who still engages in robbery. Jonny works his way back into Ruth's life and concocts a scheme to target Nan Noble, the snooty wife of a legally imperiled hedge-fund manager.
Cast[edit]
- Finn Wittrock as Jonny Collins
- Rachel Keller as Ruth Duffy
- Emily Mortimer as Nan Noble
- James Ransone as Steven Noble
- Adele Kader as Dorset Noble
- Hermione Heckrich as Murphy Noble
- Jessica Hecht as Ellen Hazard
- Scott Cohen as Guy Brinckerhoff
- Jennifer Mudge as Babe Brinckerhoff
- Tess Frazer as Ashley Spradlin
- Tonya Pinkins as Roberta Simmons
Production[edit]
Write When You Get Work was shot in New York City's Upper East Side and under the Throgs Neck Bridge in the waterfront neighborhood of Locust Point. The movie was shot on Super 16mm film in 20 days by Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit.[3]
The director (Stacy Cochran) about the movie title:
I’ve been asked several times about the title, what it means, Write When You Get Work.
It’s a directive: Call me if you get a job. Let me know if you make some money. It’s a farewell that comes with a challenge.
If you say it to someone as they walk away, it’s got promise of accomplishment but likelihood of failure in its delivery. It’s a poke in the ribs.
It was how my dad always said goodbye when I was a kid. Whether I was headed to college or off to the park, my dad would give a wave and say, “Write when you get work.”
For years, when I was a kid, I didn’t know what it meant, only that he thought it was funny. He never bothered to explain it but, as I got older, I figured it out.
And that gradual slide into understanding what’s being said to you is like the pleasure of watching a movie -- not a proof or essay, but a story that brings problems and funny ideas and the threat of disappointment. When it works, it’s a heartfelt sleight of hand.
Write When You Get Work, the movie, is a love story and a portrait of New York, a city where people live and walk in unexpected combinations, in their own heads but together.
The characters in the movie love each other, have lost each other, crowd and taunt each other, and evolve in wavy lines.
We built a cast of strangers, some of them with enormous experience and several making their feature debut. We shot on Super16 on the Upper East Side and in the Bronx, under the Throgs Neck Bridge in a waterfront neighborhood called Locust Point. We worked with the kind of improvised navigation that drives the plot of the movie itself.
Robert Elswit, our Oscar-winning cinematographer, and I had worked together before, in vastly different contexts. This movie gave us a chance to work together again for which I’m deeply grateful.
We jumped on the subway, we hailed real cabs, we stole shots on the sidewalks out in front of delis. We made last-ditch pleas for perfect locations. We pulled some rabbits out of hats. [4]
Critical reception[edit]
Vox Magazine commented, "The film successfully explores multiple viewpoints and systemic issues, which eventually comes together in the films conclusion making for a stunning finish. Cochran finds a way to make the individual storylines and details that seem unrelated form a perfect fit."[3] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times criticized the characters as "unappealing" and the story as not credible, writing the film "presents rich folk as gullible idiots and blue-collar crooks as heroes."[5] However, she praised the cinematography by Elswit, saying his "sensuously shot opening sequence alone almost carried me through to the end."[5]
Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com wrote, "There are some interesting things going on, and some insight into New York's economic hierarchy, but the film veers off into a hard-to-believe crime heist, and, ultimately, none of it really hangs together."[6] O'Malley complimented Wittrock, saying that he convincingly pulls off an "amoral" role.[6] Of Mortimer, O'Malley commented she is "a jangly mess of nerves and irritation [and] plays so compellingly terrible a character—filled with the self-pitying rage of the rich—that she is the most watchable thing in the movie. Nan is not a stereotype."[6] She also lauded the cinematography, writing "Elswit captures New York's mercurial personality, how it changes in different lights, be it harsh morning light or the monochromatic blues of dusk. Sometimes the streets feel expansive, sometimes they feel desolate and empty. It's a great-looking film, entrenched in a specific sense of place."[6] Richard Brody of The New Yorker was more positive, writing "The core of the film is Ruth and Jonny's backstory, which is dosed out in frustrating droplets but is nonetheless affecting."[2]
On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Write When You Get Work has an approval rating of 38% based on 21 reviews.[7]
References[edit]
- ^ "About". Write When You Get Work (official site). Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ a b Brody, Richard. "Write When You Get Work". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ a b Wilson, Shannon (November 4, 2018). "'Write When You Get Work' is a comical heist with a purpose". Vox Magazine. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ "ABOUT". WRITE WHEN YOU GET WORK. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ a b Catsoulis, Jeannette (November 22, 2018). "'Write When You Get Work' Review: Backstreet Boy Seeks Uptown Girl". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
- ^ a b c d O'Malley, Sheila (November 23, 2018). "Write When You Get Work movie review (2018)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ "Write When You Get Work". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
