Wild Nights with Emily (2018)

Dramatisation of the little known side of the writer Emily Dickinson's life, in particular her relationship with another woman.

Director:

Madeleine Olnek

Writer:

Madeleine Olnek

Stars:

Molly Shannon, Susan Ziegler, Amy Seimetz

3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Molly Shannon	...	Adult Emily
Amy Seimetz	...	Mabel
Susan Ziegler	...	Adult Susan
Brett Gelman	...	Higginson
Jackie Monahan	...	Adult Lavina
Kevin Seal	...	Adult Austin
Dana Melanie	...	Young Emily
Joel Michaely	...	Edward Dickinson
Sasha Frolova	...	Young Susan
Lisa Haas	...	Maggie
Casper Andreas	...	Joseph Lyman
Allison Lane	...	The Widow Kate
Robert McCaskill	...	Ralph Waldo Emerson
David Albiero	...	David Peck Todd
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marc Alan Austen	...	Guest at the party

Storyline

Dramatisation of the little known side of the writer Emily Dickinson's life, in particular her relationship with another woman.

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Plot Keywords:

writer | lesbian relationship | female poet | voice over | subtitles | 

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Genres:

Comedy | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 March 2018 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

P2 Films, Salem Street Entertainment, UnLTD Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

User Reviews

Infra dig

After watching this irreverent yet sincere tribute to poet Emily Dickinson, I had the urge to revisit Julie Harris in "The Belle of Amherst". Call me Old School, but I vastly prefer serious filmmaking to the facetiousness of this feature-length SNL sketch approach.

Certainly SNL alumna Molly Shannon as Emily and Susan Ziegler as her sister-in-law, who share the love that dare not say its name in this version of the Dickinsons story give amusing and often moving performances, but the film has no consistent style or tone, and the male characters are predictably straw men mocked for the self-centered Male Superiority attitudes. Even the movie's unreliable narrator, Mabel (Emily's posthumous editor), well-played by Amy Seimetz, is written with such a heavy hand by filmmaker Madeleine Olnek as to lose substance.

Set in 3 different time frames: 1860 for the main story, 1840 for the young Emily and Susan played by disconcertingly lovely actresses Dana Melanie and Sasha Frolova, and Mabel's current era after Emily's death, wherein she pontificates to packed audiences inflating her role in championing Dickinson's career, the movie unfolds in disconnected scenes, many of which might easily have been dropped for sheer dullness, and a couple of which (surreal in nature) clash with the matter-of-fact overall style. Unlike the usual exaggerated beauty of period movies, typified by everything from Merchant-Ivory classics to Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon", Olnek presents the show as if in a low-budget amateur dress-up production representing 2019.

Use of poetry on screen in subtitles as it is recited (and sometimes by itself) recalls Jim Jarmusch's recent use of same in "Paterson", a techinque I found artificial and forced, just as it seems here too.