Maybe I’m showing my age, but another movie about disaffected, unhappy, dysfunctional young people is just boring and adds nothing to the genre. Even if it was written by, and stars, Stella Schnabel, daughter of famous artist Julian. The misspelling of the title of “You Wont Miss Me” seems to be just another example of well-connected, rich-and-not-quite-famous folks like Schnabel either being stupid or thumbing their nose at the established order.
Heck, I don’t care if she wants to misspell words. Just don’t expect me to think her cute or imaginative for doing so. It’s part of the Webster University Film Series, opening tonight and playing through the weekend at the university.
Schnabel, 23, has acted in a number of films, and wrote this one in collaboration with her high school friend, Ry Russo-Young, who directed.
Schnabel portrays Shelly Brown, an actress, part of the New York independent art “scene,” on her way out of a mental hospital because her psychiatrist, an off-screen voice played extremely believably by Noah Kimmerling. She goes to auditions and parties, smokes a lot, drinks more, takes dope and finds herself in bed with a series of scruffy young men who seem anxious to depart as soon as possible. None of her vices seem to provide her any satisfaction. She’s angry and torn, lashing out at people–friends, strangers, possible employers–for not much reason.
Much of the acting is second-rate, and the film was shot in several different formats, making it difficult to watch and understand.
You Wont Miss Me opens tonight, plays through Sunday at the Winifred Moore Auditorium, Webster University
—Joe