A Slipping Down Life

1999 Directed by Toni Kalem

A young woman becomes obsessed with a small-time North Carolina rock singer.

Lili Taylor Guy Pearce Sara Rue Irma P. Hall John Hawkes Shawnee Smith Bruno Kirby Veronica Cartwright Tom Bower Marshall Bell Clea DuVall Margaret Bowman

109 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Vanina ★★★ 2

I found this while compiling my I'm With the Band-list. As I was researching the DVD, I found it was based on a novel by Anne Tyler, and so I set out to read that first.
The novel, I found, is a difficult one. It's a 150-page book, published in 1975. It's unclear when exactly the novel is set. There are off-the-cuff references to the Beatles being married and the Black Panthers, but other than that from the descriptions it feels very early 1960s. Evie Decker, the 17-year-old protagonist is described everywhere as shy and plump. She lives with her emotionally distant father, her mother having died giving birth to Evie.
I interpreted the novella as being about how indifference…
Review by Legolasshole ½

This movie is so fucking insufferable oh my god
Review by goran ★★★½

lili taylor is just akshnfioewghiurwo, 10/10, would gchat
the whole movie is just a sweet mess, i don't even know anymore, my eyes hurt
drumstrings is a cool name, so you know he's not a kind person
i can't wait to join the sad dads club
i don't think the previous sentence was a spoiler
i liked the scene in the beginning when an egg cracks inside a pot of boiling water, and also the scene where a female obese person is shaving her armpit, and also the dialog scene when he asks her if she's sleeping
the ghost world and a slipping down life are distant cousins who only met once when they were both eleven years old
Review by Danthe uh ★★★★

"did you ever feel like it wouldn't matter if you lived or died? 'i sure dont' i could disappear and nobody would notice." It's All About Lili T. this movie feels like something you'd find on Lifetime or the O (my references are old AF) but i got a real big kick out of it. loved the color schema. the camera had a real kinetic, sing-songy, touch and go feeling. there's a lot of clever coincidences and weird details going on in the background too. the story itself aint nothing special. it's just about a chick and a dude stuck in a small town trying to get out but with everything else added to the mix, it makes for a…
Review by Krys ★★★★½

A true gem. Lili Taylor plays Evie, a young adult adrift and disengaged from the world around her. We first meet her and the small town she lives in as she drives through it, a thoughtless scowl on her face, not even noticing a massive truck nearly crash into her car. She lives with her aging father, works a shitty amusement park job, and hangs out with her childhood best friend (Sara Rue), listlessly wondering aloud if the world would even notice if she disappeared. One night, while lying in bed listening to the radio, Evie hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey (a young Guy Pearce in full long-haired, flannel-wearing grunge glory). The sound of his voice and his half-baked…
Review by McGillicudy ★★

The only thing slipping in this movie was me, in and out of consciousness, as this movie put me to sleep.
It was pretty bad, but you can tell Guy Pearce thought it was pretty good.

Recent reviews

Review by Hannibal Odisho ★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

In the 90s, Lili Taylor and Parker Posey were considered the indie queens of Hollywood. If a film was independent, chances were that one of these ladies was starring in it. Hollywood underwent a indie revolution during that decade, led by the meteoric rise of Miramax Pictures. A Slipping-Down Life is not a Miramax picture, but its illustrative of the decade’s cinema. This film stars Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under, Kicked in the Head, I Shot Andy Warhol) and Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Memento). Taylor is a young woman leading a quiet and purposeless life in a small North Carolina town when she meets and gets obsessed about Pearce, a prog-rock singer hoping his talents will get him the hell…
Review by Krys ★★★★½

A true gem. Lili Taylor plays Evie, a young adult adrift and disengaged from the world around her. We first meet her and the small town she lives in as she drives through it, a thoughtless scowl on her face, not even noticing a massive truck nearly crash into her car. She lives with her aging father, works a shitty amusement park job, and hangs out with her childhood best friend (Sara Rue), listlessly wondering aloud if the world would even notice if she disappeared. One night, while lying in bed listening to the radio, Evie hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey (a young Guy Pearce in full long-haired, flannel-wearing grunge glory). The sound of his voice and his half-baked…
Review by Josh Johnson

Never managed to get on the wavelength.
Review by Legolasshole ½

This movie is so fucking insufferable oh my god
Review by Last1toleave ★★★½

(1999) R Evie (Lili Taylor) is a lonely young woman living in a small town. One evening, she hears a small-time rock star, Drumstring Casey (Guy Pearce), interviewed on the radio promoting a local gig. She goes to the gig and instantly becomes obsessed with the singer, and it changes her life forever. Lili Taylor gives a breathtaking performance as Evie, who restarts her life with one shocking act (I won’t tell you what it is, but it is brutal to watch). The film feels real, helped by a supporting cast including Tom Bower, John Hawkes, and Veronica Cartwright. It will be a long time before you forget Evie. My Rating: Full Price
Review by HarriettTheSpaz ★★

I'm not quite sure what this movie was trying to achieve. It was character driven but it wasn't. It was a love story, but it wasn't. It was about finding yourself but did a poor job of showing character growth or why characters behaved the way they did. To put it shortly, it was all over the place & a bit of a mess.
The movie starts off with a good premise. A young woman tired of living in the background wants to bring meaning to her life & how she goes about it by cutting a name into her forehead is compelling, but its all down hill from there.
Review by Vanina ★★★ 2

I found this while compiling my I'm With the Band-list. As I was researching the DVD, I found it was based on a novel by Anne Tyler, and so I set out to read that first.
The novel, I found, is a difficult one. It's a 150-page book, published in 1975. It's unclear when exactly the novel is set. There are off-the-cuff references to the Beatles being married and the Black Panthers, but other than that from the descriptions it feels very early 1960s. Evie Decker, the 17-year-old protagonist is described everywhere as shy and plump. She lives with her emotionally distant father, her mother having died giving birth to Evie.
I interpreted the novella as being about how indifference…
Review by McGillicudy ★★

The only thing slipping in this movie was me, in and out of consciousness, as this movie put me to sleep.
It was pretty bad, but you can tell Guy Pearce thought it was pretty good.
Review by bartontare ★

So did no one involved in production understand Anne Tyler's book at all or...?
Review by Danthe uh ★★★★

"did you ever feel like it wouldn't matter if you lived or died? 'i sure dont' i could disappear and nobody would notice." It's All About Lili T. this movie feels like something you'd find on Lifetime or the O (my references are old AF) but i got a real big kick out of it. loved the color schema. the camera had a real kinetic, sing-songy, touch and go feeling. there's a lot of clever coincidences and weird details going on in the background too. the story itself aint nothing special. it's just about a chick and a dude stuck in a small town trying to get out but with everything else added to the mix, it makes for a…
Review by TheRebexa ★

OH. MY. GOD. THIS. MOVIE. IS. SO. STUPID.
Review by Jude Seymour ★

This was the opposite of what happened with "Around the Bend." I had high hopes for this movie, because I had heard it featured Guy Pearce as a musician who sings his own songs. I ordered it from Netflix and it sat in my home for over a month before I finally watched it. I can't explain what compelled me not to take a look at it, but I think I can explain it retrospect.
It's dull.
The film is about expectations, life-goals that we saddle ourselves with to give meaning to it all. Evie hasn't found hers yet, until she sees Bertrand "Drumstrings" Casey (Peace) perform at a local dive. His approach - a song that interjects stream of…