As part of its September lineup, the Criterion Channel just launched New York Stories, a dazzling tribute to New York City celebrating its boroughs and byways, its idiosyncrasies, struggles and triumphs. Just the trailer made my heart leap with joy, then brought me close to tears as I realized what the series also commemorates. I […]
Out of the Frying Pan: ‘The Hot Rock’ (1972)
Part of my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. “I’ve heard of the habitual criminal of course, but I never dreamed I’d become involved in the habitual crime.” So speaks one of the droller denizens of The Hot Rock, Peter Yates’ winding caper film, in which a gang of thieves find themselves stealing the same […]
No People Like Show People: ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan’ (1984)
Part of my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. Since he first appeared on screen in 1955, Kermit the Frog has had a prolific career. Discovered playing banjo in the swamp, Kermit (created and voiced by Jim Henson) has been a reporter on Sesame Street, the long-suffering MC and stage manager of the Muppet Theatre, the […]
Boiling Point: Thoughts on ‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989)
Back after a brief hiatus: my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. When it was released in July 1989, Do the Right Thing was a grenade thrown from the front line: the system isn’t working; America is a pressure cooker, not a melting pot. Spike Lee’s film, about two days in the life of a […]
Lonely Town: ‘The Crowd’ (1928)
Here’s the second instalment in my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. The Crowd is about a man who moves to a big city and waits for his life to get started, without realising that his life has become waiting. So desperate is he to stand out from the crowd, he never considers there might […]
Love on the Lower East Side: ‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988)
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s the first instalment in my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jewish grandmother in possession of an eligible granddaughter and an enterprising disposition must be in want of a grandson-in-law. Such is the tale of Crossing Delancey, Joan Micklin Silver’s […]
A New York State of Mind: New York City on Film
“I love this town!” -Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) in ‘Ghostbusters’, speaking for New Yorkers everywhere. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. The Melting Pot. New Amsterdam. Gotham. New York has almost as many nicknames as it has neighbourhoods. A film hub long before Hollywood, the city is a vital part of American cinema, […]
Hollywood East
This article was originally published on Starring NYC (now sadly defunct) and has been dusted off and spruced up for its Retro Movie Buff debut. The thumbnail history of American cinema goes something like this: In the beginning, there was Edison. In the 1890s, Thomas Alva Edison—or rather his employee, W.K.L. Dickson—developed the Kinetograph, […]
A New York Story: ‘The Clock’ (1945)
Another hundred people just got off of the train And came up through the ground, While another hundred people just got off of the bus And are looking around – ‘Another Hundred People’, Company, Stephen Sondheim The Clock is a New York story, even though the actors never set foot there. Practically everything, from Penn […]