''Caitlin Plays Herself'' is a 2011 American drama film directed and produced by Joe Swanberg, written by Caitlin Stainken and Swanberg, and starring Stainken and Swanberg. Swanberg and Stainken, a performance artist with the Neo-Futurists, play fictionalized versions of themselves.

Plot

Caitlin, a socially-conscious performance artist, encounters difficulties when her boyfriend, Joe, objects to the nudity in her art.

Cast

* Caitlin Stainken as Caitlin * Joe Swanberg as Joe * Frank V. Ross as Frank * Spencer Parsons as Spencer * Megan Mercier as Megan * Kurt Chiang as Kurt * Tim Reid as Tim * Adam Wingard

Release

''Caitlin Plays Herself'' premiered at the

New Horizons Film Festival New Horizons Film Festival (previously: Era New Horizons; pl: Nowe Horyzonty) is an international film festival held annually in July in Wrocław, Poland. It has been organised since 2001. It is one of the biggest and most popular film festivals ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, Poland, on July 18, 2011. Its North American premiere was in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2, 2011.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

has cataloged three negative reviews and one positive. Ronnie Scheib of '' Variety'' called it "an American '' Vivre sa vie'' without the passion, drama or gorgeous imagery". Paul Brunick of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that Swanberg's biggest talent is his ability to get actresses to strip naked. Nick Pinkerton of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote, "It is possible that one of Swanberg’s movies is not a complete waste of time, but ''Caitlin Plays Herself'', written in collaboration with its starlet, Caitlin Stainkin, is not the one." Jaime N. Christley of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' rated it 3/4 stars and compared it to Tsai Ming-liang's ''

What Time Is It There? ''What Time Is It There?'' is a 2001 Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It stars Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, and Lu Yi-ching. Plot Hsiao-kang is a street vendor in Taipei who sells watches out of a briefcase. His father dies. Soon ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{Joe Swanberg 2011 films 2011 drama films American drama films Films directed by Joe Swanberg Mumblecore films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films