WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY

Director: Madeleine Olnek

84, PG-13

Screenwriter: Madeleine Olnek

Cast: Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz, Susan Ziegler, Brett Gelman, Jackie Monahan.

 

Cinestudio presents a new look at the New England woman who is plausibly America’s best poet, but who has been mostly portrayed as a Victorian “spinster,” whose life was dull and under the thumb of her parents and brother. Enter filmmaker Madeleine Olnek, who gives us an Emily (Molly Shannon) much more in tune with her poetry: brainy, jealous, and madly in love with her brother’s wife, Sue. While there have been hints of the women’s longtime relationship, Olnek confesses that she “fills in the missing pieces,” resulting in a lively drama that is funny, sexy and eventually very poignant to boot. Emily Dickinson deserves nothing less.

 “Delightfully droll…offers joy and companionship to a figure whose history was more conveniently presented to generations of readers as solitary.” Teo Bugbee, New York Times.