Nonureva Really Surprised!

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Crabby McGrouchpants One of the things I always like about Swanberg's pictures ("Drinking Buddies," "Happy Christmas," et. al.) is how the characters' lives are always framed around work: however certain viewers might gripe about their dwelling unduly on the personal woes of twentysomethings, to my mind, there's something astute and Douglas Coupland-esque about their refusal to act like the people they're showing us don't have to go back to work, make sure their love lives are stabilized while on break, then patch things up during lunch or on the week-end, etc.This one's charming and unpredictable and savvy, which makes it, it would appear, a bit of a problem for the non-astute viewer used to being hit over the head: it's not "drama," it's drama. (Check out the part where the guy observes, "Office Romance: Good idea or Bad Idea? Bad Idea, but, okay ... now what?" Somehow these things don't come up in rom-coms where everyone can afford airfare easily.)Whimsical disappointment, and, I guess whimsical "spoiler" alert: the movie's got a slinky in it, but we never see it going down "the stairs"! ("What! I paid $8 to see this? Show me the slinky ... going all the way!")

thesar-2 I admit I am not a Woody Allen fan, and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that feels that way. But his movies have been consistently made for decades. Obviously someone has a thing for him to continuously produce and distribute his versions of comedy and life. So be it. Unfortunately, it's happening again with this group of self-proclaimed, non-actor nobodies, Mark Duplass, Joe Swanberg, etc. How anyone continues to release their "thoughts, ideas and everyday life shots" is beyond me. But, I guess, to each his/her own. I've now seen three of them: 'Baghead' seems to be the best of the bunch. Then the soft-porn excuse: 'Kissing on the Mouth.' And now, 'Hannah Takes the Stairs,' the worst of the three. That's saying a lot, considering 'Kissing' wasn't any good either. But, here we have even less acting, less plot, more face-close ups and more unintentionally hilarious scenes (both appear in the closing, yet another break up where the actors themselves seem to have a hard time from cracking up, it was so unreal. And a naked bath/trumpet scene – really?) Once again in these so-called "Mumblecore" films finds reasons to take women's clothes off for full-frontal nudity (along with the occasional full-frontal male shot, I guess for good measure/balance) and film EVERYTHING in sight. What makes me laugh in these movies is the extras – where they actually have deleted scenes. Seriously? Something was left out? The basic, and I mean they (no joke) had no script, synopsis is a terrible person (Hannah) who "doesn't know" herself/path (you'll hear that a lot) so she uses men and crushes them to "find" herself. Unfortunately, the actors' desire to "not act" in these films pays off and you get no emotion or creditability when she consistently breaks up with men. Advice: Show/Don't Tell.

gogisgavrilis I am from Europe and have been living in US for 2 years. I mostly watch films like this one: low budget, simple camera etc. especially I love films where 'nothing is going on' with one room and 2 people talking about nothing. But still could not connect with this one. I find it shallow, empty. Maybe I am wrong but can not get rid of the feeling that is all Matt Duplass' fault. I have seen also My puffy chair and felt the same (both films on Sundance Channel which is by the way the best thing I get through whatever is provided from my cable company). Also contrary from most other comments I found the main girl interesting… soft and tender

doug1967_1 What's the cheapest way to make a movie? Have two actors in a room talk to each other. That seems to be the case with "Hannah Takes the Stairs", an ultra-low budget film making the rounds in the art house theatres.The film is rather claustrophobic since most of the action takes place in just a few rooms, with what appears to be the occasional "stolen shot" outside. I say stolen because filming permits in a big city are rather expensive and the outdoor set ups have a "quick, get the shot and get out before the cops see us" feel to them (these shots only run a few seconds, which is the main indication).The characters talk about their lives and work, talk some more, have sex, talk some more, talk, talk, etc. The occasional nude scene keeps the audience awake, but with no real story to propel the film along I found it to be quite a snoozer.Not too surprisingly, all dialog was improvised—-and it shows. Scenes ramble on for quite some time and even though the film is less than an hour-and-a-half, it seems quite longer.Filmmakers, please write a script and actually have a plot. Without it, the most attractive actors and locations in the world aren't worth much if you can't keep your audience interested.