When Ira Sachs’s Peter Hujar’s Day premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, it caused a small earthquake in the cinema world. Rejecting the rise-and-fall patterns of traditional biopics, Sachs confines his focus to a single day, a single room, and two extraordinary minds. This anti-epic journey, set in a New York apartment in 1974, is based on a real interview recording between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz. In a 2026 world peaking with digital noise, presenting such a raw and analogue display of existence is in fact a radical act of honesty.
Subject: The Anatomy of a Recorded Life
The film covers one day in which Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) recounts his ordinary daily routines, laundry errands, and casual encounters with New York’s art circles of the time to Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall).
While mapping a landscape stretching from Allen Ginsberg to art-world gossip, the narrative succeeds in saying “everything” while talking about “nothing.” The claustrophobic 1.37:1 frame traps the viewer in Linda’s apartment, presenting the spirit of 1970s New York not as a museum piece but as a living organism.
Acting: The Quiet Clash of Giants
The film’s entire power stems from the chemistry and performance discipline between Whishaw and Hall:
Ben Whishaw (Peter): Whishaw embodies Peter Hujar’s neurotic fragility and intellectual arrogance as if it were in his very skin. His performance is intense enough to turn a 76-minute conversation into a physical journey.
Rebecca Hall (Linda): Hall serves as a grounded anchor that reins in a chaotic stream of consciousness. She gives a masterclass in how a character can be built simply by listening and asking the right questions.
Awards and Critic Notes: “Boredom” or “Masterpiece”?
The film sparked heated debates among critics, oscillating between “deliberate boredom” and “pure genius.” Yet this polarisation did not prevent it from becoming one of 2025’s most significant cultural events:
Gotham Awards: Won Best Screenplay for its innovative use of the Rosenkrantz transcripts.
Independent Spirit Awards: Received 5 nominations, including Best Film and Best Actor for Ben Whishaw.
Critic Scores: Secured “critic favourite” status with 82 on Metacritic and mid-80s on Rotten Tomatoes.
Why Watch It?
Ira Sachs reminds us that cinema is not only for “entertaining” but for “observing.” If the following appeal to you, this film could be a treasure:
Conversation-Core: If you love experimental, dialogue-driven works in the style of My Dinner with Andre.
Analogue Revival: For those weary of the digital world and longing for the slow, tactile interactions of the 1970s.
Minimalist Triumph: If you believe two actors in one room can create more tension than armies of CGI.
A Note from Apartment No: 26
Peter Hujar’s Day is not for every viewer. For those seeking fast editing and a clear plot, it may feel like “a boring pile of gossip.” But for the patient viewer, discovering the vast history hidden in the frequencies of a person’s voice makes it one of the most rewarding cinema experiences of 2025. Sachs says, “To observe is to love”; by looking so closely at Peter Hujar, we learn to love him and the lost New York spirit he represents.
Credits
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Rebecca Hall
Director: Ira Sachs
Screenplay: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias (adapted from Linda Rosenkrantz’s book)
