Los Angeles Times - Thursday, January 12, 2006

Slacker's delight

The American Cinematheque's Alternative Screen presents Laura Colella's evocative meta-film "Stay Until Tomorrow." Eleanor Hutchins is alternately sexy, funny and bemusing as Nina, a former teenage soap opera star who quit to attend college and then gave up on college to travel the world. After years of drifting, she lands abruptly at the Providence apartment of her childhood friend Jim (Barney Cheng), a cautiously stoic librarian she hasn't seen in seven years.

The proudly tangential film follows Nina's gently hedonistic idle as it stretches from a few days to what seems like months. Her days are spent in the library, absorbing books, learning Italian for her next destination, and having brisk casual sex on its secluded rooftop with an assortment of willing strangers.

Colella surreally punctuates the relaxed story with wry commentary by Cheng as the actor playing Jim, questioning the choices made by the film-within-the-film's director, Claudia. Equally in love with words and images, Colella displays great fondness for things that delight the senses, including, but not limited to, food, wine, sex, music and art. – Kevin Crust

“A wildly inventive and unabashedly sweet comedy ... Gorgeously shot and subtly acted,
this playful and bold feature builds with a slow charm that ultimately pays off big, in a
chaotic finale that draws from a passion for the limitless possibilities of cinema.”
– Minnesota Film Arts

“(Stay Until Tomorrow ) boasts a splendid performance from Eleanor Hutchins as the
onetime soap star who descends on her librarian buddy and proceeds to dismantle his
ordered existence.” – BBC

“Sensual, dreamy direction, recalling that of Wong Kar-Wai.”– Santa Fe Reporter

“Funny and sexy, this is a feel-good movie for the irreverent. Nina is restless. She has
tried acting and college, but really just wants to travel and experience new things. This
unpredictable comedy is a refreshingly real look at a young woman seeking exotic and
erotic possibilities.” – Brattleboro Film Festival

“In Stay Until Tomorrow, her second feature film, (Colella) takes the flavors of life – salty
and sweet, sour and bitter – and combines them to create a delicious nontraditional
narrative that explores topics ranging from platonic love to class struggle, from
masculinity to the Chinese Cultural Revolution . . . The script is wide-ranging but tightly
sketched, with a micro-meets-the-macro swagger plus boy-meets-girl sweetness . . .
Around the bend, eye-popping sex scenes will have you thinking about libraries in a
whole different light.” – The Beaufort Gazette

“On one hand, Stay Until Tomorrow is a road movie about an old love; on the other hand,
it's about traveling the world. It's also a musical delicacy.”– 030 (Berlin, Germany)

“A beautiful work that restores the true nature of independent film.”– Santa Fe Film Festival

“We think if we had to design a serious woman-centered comedy we could not have come
up with anything better than Stay Until Tomorrow . . . You will love every bit of this clever,
poignant, and utterly entertaining portrait of a woman and her friends and lovers. In fact,
you'll want to run away with her.”– St. John's International Women's Film Festival

“An almost perfect film combining true originality and artistic beauty.”– William John Hagan