''Ed's Next Move'' is a 1996 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written and directed by John Walsh. It stars Matt Ross,

Callie Thorne Calliope "Callie" Thorne is an American actress known for her role as Dr. Dani Santino on the USA Network series '' Necessary Roughness''. She is also known for past work such as her roles on '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' as Detective Laura ...

, and Kevin Carroll. A micro-budget film about a transplanted Midwesterner adapting to life in New York's East Village, the film appeared at the 1996

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

where it received critical praise and was picked up by

Orion Classics Orion Classics started in 1982 as the distribution label for the then independent film production company Orion Pictures, now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was relaunched in 2018. The original focus of 1980-era Orion Classics was on acquirin ...

for theatrical release.

Premise

After being dumped by his girlfriend, twentysomething scientist Eddie decides to uproot himself from his home state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and takes a job in New York City. In the Big Apple, Eddie's new roommate Ray encourages him to start dating again. Eddie has little luck with women until he meets Lee, a bohemian musician. The two appear to be opposites on the surface, but Eddie is determined to make things work with her.

Cast

Production

John Walsh wrote the script in 1991, then titled ''More Bad Times'', and shopped it around to film studios; after receiving no interest due to its lack of a big-name star, Walsh resolved the make the film himself. The film's budget, reportedly $93,000, was primarily financed on Walsh's credit cards. The film's production was also made possible in part by the availability of leftover 35 mm film stock from

Wayne Wang Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong Americans, Hong Kong–American Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese Americans, ...

s film ''

Smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product ...

''. Principal photography began in October 1994 and took four weeks. Scenes set in Wisconsin were filmed in Morristown, New Jersey.

Release

In the fall of 1995, a rough cut of the film was screened at the

Independent Feature Project Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

s Film Market. An organizer for the

happened to be present at the screening and invited Walsh to show his film as part of the 1996 festival lineup. Upon the film's Sundance premiere, the film secured distribution rights with

and was later given a limited theatrical release beginning on September 27, 1996. It also screened at the

1996 Toronto International Film Festival The 21st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and September 14, 1996. Deepa Mehta's ''Fire'' was selected as the opening film. Awards Programme Gala Presentation *'' Shine'' by S ...

Reception

On review aggregate website

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 ...

, ''Ed's Next Move'' has an approval rating of 80% based on 10 critics' reviews. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...

called the movie "one of the most appealing, audience friendly films at Sundance," while

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

referred to the film as "a truth telling comedy with quiet wit and bright dialogue. He further added the film "is a comedy, not a docudrama, and yet it's more accurate about romance than many more serious movies. For one thing, it is driven by dialogue and social uncertainty, rather than by testosterone."

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

called it "a perfectly formed romantic comedy."

References

External links

* * *{{AllMovie title, 135534 1996 films 1996 independent films 1996 romantic comedy films Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City American romantic comedy films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films