PETER HUGAR’S DAY

(director/writer: Ira Sachs; screenwriter: book by Linda Rosenkrantz; cinematographer: Alex Ashe; editor: Affonso Goncalves; cast: Ben Whishaw (Peter Hugar), Rebecca Hall (Linda Rosenkranz); Runtime: 76; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Jordan Drake, Jonah Disend; One Two Films/Janus Films; 2025-USA/UK/Germany/Spain)

“Curiosity film.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The Ira Sachs (“Passages”/”Love is Strange”) two-handed drama, shot in 16mm, is based on the 2021 book by Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) that covers through conversation the NYC culture scene in the mid-1970s.

The writer Linda invites her East Village celebrity photographer friend Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) over to her Yorkville apartment on 12/19/1974 and records him on her reel-to-reel tape recorder telling how he spent yesterday. No magazine story came of it, but their recorded conversation was discovered in 2019 in the archives of the Morgan Library and Museum in NYC and became the reason for this curiosity film.

Hujar was recognized for his iconic black-and-white photographs of the famous downtown living New Yorkers of the 1970s and 1980s.

The gay celebrity photographer (died in 1987 of AIDS at age 53) talks about his yesterday photo shoot for the NY Times with the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, a visit from Glenn O’Brien (writer for GQ) and a call by Susan Sontag (celeb writer of best sellers). He also name drops a bunch of celebs he knows.

Hujar talks eloquently about what makes a photo a work of art and of the underground art scene in the city.

If you’re in the mood to hear a stimulating conversation about the city culture scene back in the day, this film does the trick. The two top-flight Brit actors give natural performances that probably allow them to pass for city natives.

It played at the New York Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 12/7/2025  GRADE: B
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