New York Minute

Two teenage sisters, a straight-A overachiever (Ashley Olsen) and a heedless goof-off (Mary-Kate Olsen), have madcap adventures in Manhattan as one prepares for a scholarship competition, and the other to be an extra in a music video. The girls are so popular and the movie is so cheap-looking that it will surely make a profit, but it’s not good. Ashley and Mary-Kate are like twin female Macaulay Culkins: too old to be kiddie-cute anymore, gawky and unable to recite even the simplest lines of dialogue without sounding sweetly stilted. It’s like watching your neighbor’s modestly talented daughters perform: They’re dutiful and hard-working but oddly uncomfortable considering that they’ve been in front of cameras since the age of 1. Four neophyte writers contribute little, as does director Dennie Gordon.