By: MJ Asuncion
A coming-of-age feature set in New York City, Lucy Schulman captures the spirit of classic New York indie style cinema where the characters and the city are intimately woven together. The story is filled with warmth, wit, sharp humor and emotional honesty with a refreshing sense of authenticity. There aren’t any extremely dramatic conflicts but the growing pains of maintaining genuine, meaningful relationships.
Lucy Schulman follows the titular protagonist (Ellie Sachs) as she works and living in the big city where she was raised. After a devastating breakup, Lucy moves back into her childhood home with her eccentric, endlessly supportive single father (David Cross). Their relationship is one of the film’s emotional anchors, deeply loving and marked by a level of codependency that both comforts and limits them. Despite missing her ex and her best friend’s advice against it, Lucy dives right back into a series of bad dates and false starts. She stumbles through one date after another, boyfriends who completely consume her and friendships she struggles to hold onto. She constantly puts aside her own aspirations for her relationships and deals with the messy consequences later. Through Lucy’s journey the film offers a heartfelt and sometimes hilarious portrait of modern adulthood, capturing the uncertainty, loneliness, and hope that come with figuring out who you are when the life you imagined for yourself doesn’t quite work out.
Writer, director and star Ellie Sachs delivers a strong performance as Lucy Schulman, portraying her as intelligent, overthinking, caring and at times self-involved. There is a true sincerity in Sachs’s acting, coupled with a quiet vulnerability that shines through in her expressions and delivery. She fully embraces Lucy’s complexities and imperfections, creating a character who feels authentic and relatable. Opposite Sachs is actor David Cross who gives a standout performance as Lucy’s supportive and loving father, Peter. Cross brings a natural warmth and understated humor to the role, helping to balance the film’s more serious and emotional moments. His chemistry with Sachs is one of the film’s greatest strengths, creating a believable and heartfelt father-daughter dynamic that feels genuine throughout.
The romantic comedy marks the feature directorial debut of Tribeca alum Ellie Sachs, who also wrote and stars in the film. She is also an affiliated artist with Rehabilitation Through the Arts where she has directed and acted alongside inmates. Her previous work has been featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and The Guardian, amongst others.
The narrative film Lucy Schulman is surprisingly relatable and deeply heartfelt. The story will resonate with anyone navigating life’s many twists and turns while balancing careers, relationships and family without losing sight of themselves and their independence in the process. The film’s warmth, authenticity and humanity linger long after the credits roll.