Film

Smithereens

Name: Smithereens
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Released: 1982
Cast: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell, Nada Despotovich, Roger Jett

Drama

Smithereens is a 1982 indie drama capturing New York's punk scene through the eyes of Wren, a manipulative drifter who exploits everyone around her. Shot on 16mm with a jagged energy that matches its protagonist's selfishness, it's a portrait of parasitism dressed as authenticity. For those drawn to unflinching character studies and the grime of early-80s Manhattan.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love loose, street-level New York films of the early 1980s where the camera drifts after a restless hustler and the punk club scene feels lived-in rather than staged.

Skip it if you need a tight plot or a character you can root for, since the lead is abrasive and self-serving and the story wanders rather than builds toward anything.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-four minutes at a loose, shambling pace, asking you to sit with unpolished scenes and an unlikable protagonist rather than follow a driving narrative.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Permanent Midnight1998

Ben Stiller as a charming addict navigating Hollywood with the same toxic magnetism. Sharp, darkly funny, and unflinching about how charisma masks destruction without ever excusing it.

But Stiller's against type, which works brilliantly or feels miscast depending on your tolerance. Some find the subject matter relentless.

Sid and Nancy1986

Alex Cox's punk-rock tragedy about a doomed couple at the Sex Pistols' heart. Visually wild, deeply sympathetic, capturing the same era's self-destructive glamour with real affection for its casualties.

But It's bleak and doesn't offer easy answers. The romance here is genuinely tragic, not redemptive.

Liquid Sky1982

Released the same year, this Soviet film explores alienation and parasitism through a New York punk girl. Hypnotic, strange, and startlingly modern in its dissection of detachment and casual cruelty.

But It's genuinely difficult and abstract. You need patience for its oblique narrative and unsettling mood.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Smithereens

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

American Graffiti1973

Both are precise anatomies of a scene in decline, told through selfish, charismatic people who use each other. One mourns; the other despises.

An ensemble portrait of a subculture at its twilight—here, '60s cruising culture. Like Smithereens, it captures a world in transition through interconnected characters, none of them quite sympathetic, all of them vivid and specific to their moment.

But It's nostalgic where Smithereens is cynical. Much sunnier in tone, and the narrative is more conventional.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie1976

Cassavetes' intimate study of a desperate man making terrible choices. Grainy, claustrophobic, and deeply human in how it renders moral compromise and the fantasy we build around ourselves.

But It's slow, repetitive, and requires you to sit with someone you won't like. The pacing frustrates many viewers.

Christiane F.1981

A German film about a teenage girl's descent into heroin addiction in West Berlin's underground. Unflinching and heartbreaking, it shares Smithereens' refusal to sentimentalize its damaged characters.

But It's harrowing and explicitly about child addiction. Not heavy viewing—genuinely difficult subject matter.

Stranger Than Paradise1984

Jarmusch's deadpan debut about drifters and mutual incomprehension. Black-and-white, deliberately paced, funny in the way that comes from watching people fail to connect.

But The humour is anti-comedy. Long static shots and minimal dialogue bore viewers expecting conventional narrative momentum.

Repo Man1984

A punk sci-fi comedy about alienation, meaninglessness, and the counterculture's commodification. Stylish, cynical, and genuinely strange—it channels the same era's disenchantment.

But It's deliberately incoherent. The plot dissolves into abstraction, which feels clever or frustrating depending on your mood.

Blank City2011

A documentary about the New York underground film scene of the 1970s-80s that Smithereens emerged from. Interviews, archival footage, and real context for the punk aesthetic as serious artistic rebellion.

But It's a documentary, so if you want narrative drama rather than context, it's auxiliary viewing rather than replacement.

Stalker1979

Both examine characters who seduce through charm while being fundamentally empty at their core. One is punk vernacular; one is Bergman-influenced metaphysics. Same void, different languages.

Tarkovsky's science-fiction meditation on desire and self-deception. A man leads others into a mysterious zone while lying about his motivations. Meditative and visually rapturous, it explores parasitism as spiritual condition.

But It's slow, philosophical, and alien in sensibility. Nearly three hours of contemplative pacing—the opposite of punk's energy.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both use a protagonist's manipulation of those around them as a mirror for the impossibility of genuine connection. One is visceral and immediate; one is baroque and theoretical. Same problem, different scales.

Charlie Kaufman's sprawling, anguished film about a director creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse. Like Smithereens, it's about narcissism, parasitism, and the performance of authenticity—but expanded into existential nightmare.

But It's baroque, digressive, and emotionally exhausting. It builds toward a mood rather than resolution, and some find it self-indulgent.