In 1974, acclaimed photographer Peter Hujar describes the routines and rituals that define an artist’s life to his friend, the writer Linda Rosenkrantz, capturing a single day’s activities in touching and funny detail — from interactions with cultural icons of the time, including Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Susan Sontag, to the texture and energy of downtown New York in its heyday. Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall star in the elegant and intimate new piece from filmmaker Ira Sachs (PASSAGES) — a dazzling showcase for the two performers at its center — that is both a masterful portrait of a time and place, and a captivating film about the way art emerges from the intimate details of everyday life.
“A work that ranks among the director’s best. Led by a performance of transfixing grace and subtlety from Ben Whishaw in the title role, the diaristic film spins compacted time into something free-flowing, expansive, illuminating and emotionally resonant, all of it achieved with elegant restraint.” —David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter “Whishaw, who plays Hujar, gives one of the finest accounts of what is called the creative process ever captured on film. Which is to say, he shows rather than tells how there is no dividing creativity from daily existence.” —Philip Kennicott, Washington Post “The film reveals the extraordinary within the ordinary…. Sachs gives us several gifts through this uniquely beautiful movie: a space to reflect, a time to pause, and, indeed, to give us PETER HUJAR’S DAY. What a day it was.” —Gregory Nussen, ScreenRant
