In the mid-19th century, Emily Dickinson is writing prolifically, baking gingerbread, and enjoying a passionate, lifelong romantic relationship with another woman—sister-in-law and muse Susan Dickinson. Molly Shannon leads in this humorous yet bold reappraisal of Dickinson, informed by her private letters. While seeking publication of some of the 1,775 poems written during her lifetime, Emily finds herself facing a troupe of male literary gatekeepers too confused by her genius to take her work seriously. Instead her work attracts the attention of an ambitious woman editor, who also sees Emily as a convenient cover for her own role in buttoned-up Amherst's most bizarre love triangle. A timely critique of how women's history is rewritten, WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY remains vibrant, irreverent and tender—perhaps a closer depiction of Emily Dickinson's real life than anything seen before.
“This is an irreverent film, but its lightness is meaningful. With each silly flourish, [director Madeleine] Olnek offers joy and companionship to a figure whose history was more conveniently presented to generations of readers as solitary.” —Teo Bugbee, New York Times
“Olnek’s comedy does two favors to Dickinson: First, it reclaims one of few women poets firmly in the literary canon as a distinctly queer voice, and second, it revitalizes a corpus of poems familiar to every American schoolchild.… Despite the seriousness of its intent, WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY always strikes a playful tone.” —Pat Brown, Slant
“...Molly Shannon is brilliant and warm as the literary icon.” —Jude Dry, IndieWire
"One of the real delights of Madeleine Olnek's WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY...is how funny it is, fresh and funny and absurd. Olnek takes one of the many Emily Dickinson theories—that the famous "spinster recluse" had a lifelong love affair with Susan Gilbert, her childhood friend and eventual sister-in-law—and runs with it, has fun with it, flings open the doors, letting in light and passion and life.” —Sheila O’Malley, rogerbert.com
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