Chained for Life (2019)
77%RT Audience Score: 54%
Awards & Nominations: 5 wins & 7 nominations
Darkly funny and impressively ambitious, Chained for Life is as unpredictable as it is original
Chained for Life is a movie that’s as strange as it is charming. It’s a movie about making movies, but with a surreal twist that keeps you on your toes. The characters are all flawed and awkward, but that’s what makes them so relatable. It’s a movie that’s both serious and funny, and it’s definitely not your typical Hollywood fare. If you’re looking for something a little different, give Chained for Life a try. Who knows, you might just love it!
Production Company(ies)
Columbia Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Bill, Phillips
Distributor
Kino Lorber
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
Year of Release
2019
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 31m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 11, 2019 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 10, 2019
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Chained for Life, drama, 1h 31m, Jess Weixler, Adam Pearson, Stephen Plunkett, Charlie Korsmo, Sari Lennick, Daniel Gilchrist, directed by Aaron Schimberg, written by Aaron Schimberg, produced by Daniel Patrick Carbone, Vanessa McDonnell, Matthew Petock, Jane Schoenbrun, Zachary Shedd, Kino Lorber, $17.4K box office, critic reviews, darkly funny, impressively ambitious, unpredictable, satire, moviemaking, surreal touches, low-budget, original, facial deformity, Hollywood portrayals, disability, representation, self-reflexive, character-driven, slow-paced, unique, serious, meaningful, darkly funny, creepy
Worldwide gross: $17,431
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,141
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 3,122
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,196
US/Canada gross: $17,431
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,141
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,799
US/Canada opening weekend: $7,415
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $8,568
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,734
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Adam Pearson – Rosenthal
Stephen Plunkett – Max
Charlie Korsmo – Herr Director
Sari Lennick – Sarah
Daniel Gilchrist – Demby
Director(s)
Aaron Schimberg
Writer(s)
Aaron Schimberg
Producer(s)
Daniel Patrick Carbone, Vanessa McDonnell, Matthew Petock, Jane Schoenbrun, Zachary Shedd
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
5 wins & 7 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (52) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (52)
[A] wonky, charming satire…
October 27, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Simran Hans
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
A sharp movie about moviemaking, with welcome surreal touches that are best left unspoiled.
October 24, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Josh Slater-Williams
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
This low-budget film written and directed by Aaron Schimberg is almost every kind of strange, and yet it has an amiable warmth and an inexhaustible reserve of originality that make it compelling as hell.
October 24, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Leslie Felperin
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Anchored by Weixler’s and Pearson’s natural charm, “Chained for Life” stands up as both a quiet ode to the experimental, dreamlike spirit of moviemaking and a seriocomic corrective to sentimentalized sideshow portrayals.
October 18, 2019
Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
If the point of Tod Browning’s Freaks was that it’s what’s inside that makes someone a monster, Chained for Life finds that everyone is awkward, everyone sees their own flaws, and everybody is just somebody.
October 3, 2019 | Rating: 3/5
Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
Chained for Life’s genius is in its playfulness, and in [director Aarpm] Schimberg’s vision, lucid but disorienting, insistent that there be no boundary between the movie we’re watching and the movie – movies? – his characters are making.
September 23, 2019
K. Austin Collins
Vanity Fair
TOP CRITIC
It’s less like a dream than it is a trippy sniff off the fumes of a failed suicide by carbon-monoxide poisoning – that’s a compliment, by the way!
July 6, 2021
Jason Adams
The Film Experience
The film works as both an affectionate movie-industry comedy (with references to Franju and ‘Freaks’) and as a provocative inquiry into the parameters of onscreen ‘representation.’
June 22, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Chained is more than a bit of a scathing indictment of Hollywood portrayals of anyone with a disability or who doesn’t conform to traditional matinee idol looks…and cinematic mindfuckery to boot.
April 25, 2020 | Rating: B+
Frank J. Avella
Edge Media Network
[A] character driven film that may feel a bit slow but has a decent pay-off for those it will touch and work for in the end.
April 11, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Emilie Black
Cinema Crazed
Although this film raised some very important topics, it continued on its journey as a self-reflexive movie within a movie. Independently, this is an interesting risk to take…
February 23, 2020
Allie Loukas
Battle Royale With Cheese
He’s crafted something wholly unique as it navigates the serious and meaningful as deftly as it does the darkly funny and creepy.
December 20, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Lisa Trifone
Third Coast Review…
Plot
In Chained for Life, an actress forms a connection with a young man who has a facial deformity, in a darkly funny and unpredictable exploration of moviemaking and societal perceptions of beauty.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film stars Jess Weixler, known for her roles in Teeth and The Good Wife.
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