Ethan Hawke’s feature debut as a director, Chelsea Walls works overtime to prove its artistic bona fides. Shot on murky digital video in New York City’s Chelsea Hotel—onetime home of Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, and Arthur Miller—the movie jumps from room to room, each one a hotbed of creative angst, as it unspools five stories over the course of one day featuring the likes of Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosario Dawson, Paz de la Huerta, Uma Thurman, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Sean Leonard, and more. Driven by meandering musings about the purpose of art, the movie feels more fascinated by the lifestyles of the likes of Thomas, Cohen, and Miller than their actual work.
