Shit Year
A just-retired actress -- played to perfection by Ellen Barkin -- faces the void left by a life emptied of all roles save herself in Cam Archer's handsome black-and-white imagefest, Shit Year. [...] Archer's given a gift to Barkin fans (a larger club than Hollywood studios seem to credit), offering the actress a fully-developed central role that takes advantage of her reflexive ability to shape her character's deep insecurities with an overlay of lived-in confidence and power. Plus, auds get to delight in the deft way she tosses off lines, like Barbara Stanwyck at her most snide. [...] Together with d.p. Aaron Platt, he's [Archer] created a world of striking images that combine elements from such black-and-white photographic masters as Garry Winogrand and Ansel Adams. Overexposed whites serve to reinforce Colleen's vulnerability while enhancing the lensing's tactile pleasures.
– Jay Weissberg, Variety
Artsy doesn't begin to describe Cam Archer's Shit Year, a self-conscious oddity starring an oddly compelling Ellen Barkin.
– Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Duration: 95 min
Dialogue: English
Age limit: K15
