Yes. Three things drew me to New York as a little girl in that I-am-scared-of-the-rollercoaster-but-it-is-so-beautiful-and-dangerous-I-must-get-on-the-ride way: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Daddy Was a Number Runner and Fame.
yes, fame is greatness. pretty much the only movie that sums up my highschool going exp.
U were a Dancer?!!!?!
Naw, they probably just broke out and danced in the Cafeteria. Didn't you???
Electric Boogie - that's it though...
i went to the Booker T. Washington School for The Visual and Performing Arts aka Booker T, in downtown Dallas. Erykah Badu, Edie Brickell,etc. went there. i went there for visual arts, but it really was like fame up in the school. dancers stretching in the hallway, painting, trumpeters blowing their horn etc.
on the first day of school freshman year, a bunch of dancers and singers broke out into a impromptu, though pretty great, version of the fame theme song. sadly they did not follow up with the more appropriate "hot lunch".
Inspired in form by American police TV shows and soap operas, The Golden Boat is a madcap, surreal dash through the streets of New York city, telling the mysterious and often hilarious story of an aged street-person named Austin, a comically compulsive assassin, as he joins up with a young rock critic and philosophy student named Israel Williams. In the course of their adventures, Austin pursues his object of desire - a Mexican soap opera star - and along the way engages a host of TV characters and bit players, whose repartee range from gangsterish insults to the question of God's existence.
It is such an arty/pseudo-academicy New York film, it's almost unbearable.
But I still have managed to watch it almost a dozen times.
Jim Jarmusch, Annie Sprinkle, Barbet Schroeder, Kathy Acker (RIP) cameo and Zorn did the music. You see what I mean?
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned After Hours, one of my absolute favorite NYC movies. It captures the vibe of downtown in the 80's perfectly IMO.
After Hours seems to get more love on this site than King of Comedy, which puzzles me. I love both movies, but KoC is just next-level.
After Hours is an extremely funny movie with great performances, a truly dark edge and an epic plot. King Of Comedy stars Sandra Bernhardt and Jerry Lewis.
This is like a triple bill plucked straight from my darkest nightmares.
So you probably don't like Friends or Will & Grace either???
I've never made it through more than thirty seconds of screeching on Will & Grace though have probably seen a few episodes of Friends in my time, I think it's impossible not to have done. It's not romantic comedies/sitcoms I have an issue with, just these particular movies.
Fisher King is a classic slice of Gilliam whimsy coupled with Robin Williams flitting between that I-am-a-sensitive-man face gurn and manic mugging.
The Brothers McMullen is just boring - like you point out, it's a sitcom/serial pilot stretched to feature length.
I don't hate When Harry Met Sally but find Billy Crystal more and more intolerable as the years go by.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned After Hours, one of my absolute favorite NYC movies. It captures the vibe of downtown in the 80's perfectly IMO.
After Hours seems to get more love on this site than King of Comedy, which puzzles me. I love both movies, but KoC is just next-level.
After Hours is an extremely funny movie with great performances, a truly dark edge and an epic plot. King Of Comedy stars Sandra Bernhardt and Jerry Lewis.
hah. both of whom are terrific in it. Have you seen King of Comedy? Has all the qualities you ascribe to After Hours, with the proviso that I'm not sure what you mean by an epic plot re: a film that takes place in a 24-Hr span. And King of Comedy boasts my favorite performance from DeNiro.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned After Hours, one of my absolute favorite NYC movies. It captures the vibe of downtown in the 80's perfectly IMO.
After Hours seems to get more love on this site than King of Comedy, which puzzles me. I love both movies, but KoC is just next-level.
After Hours is an extremely funny movie with great performances, a truly dark edge and an epic plot. King Of Comedy stars Sandra Bernhardt and Jerry Lewis.
hah. both of whom are terrific in it. Have you seen King of Comedy? Has all the qualities you ascribe to After Hours, with the proviso that I'm not sure what you mean by an epic plot re: a film that takes place in a 24-Hr span. And King of Comedy boasts my favorite performance from DeNiro.
Again, I also love After Hours.
Yeah sorry I should have put a wink on the end but was still waking up at the time. I really rate KoC and think the performances and film are outstanding but was just trying to shorthand suggest why people are more likely to ride for the former rather than the latter. I think KoC is just too much of an oddity to ever become really popular outside critics circles, it crosses the accepted line between comedy and uncomfortable too much and isn't easy to pigeon hole. After Hours has similar moments but follows a more accepted structure. My opinion anyway.
By epic I was thinking more of a situation spiralling out of control from a simple coffee to suicide, lynch mobs and the like.
On a side note, as much as I love Office Space, the opening sequence of After Hours where Dunne sits there as Pinchot waffles on, his voice slowly replaced by the sounds of Bach as the camera records the routines around him, is the greatest summary of the banality of office life I've ever seen.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,915 Posts
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned After Hours, one of my absolute favorite NYC movies. It captures the vibe of downtown in the 80's perfectly IMO.
After Hours seems to get more love on this site than King of Comedy, which puzzles me. I love both movies, but KoC is just next-level.
After Hours is an extremely funny movie with great performances, a truly dark edge and an epic plot. King Of Comedy stars Sandra Bernhardt and Jerry Lewis.
hah. both of whom are terrific in it. Have you seen King of Comedy? Has all the qualities you ascribe to After Hours, with the proviso that I'm not sure what you mean by an epic plot re: a film that takes place in a 24-Hr span. And King of Comedy boasts my favorite performance from DeNiro.
Again, I also love After Hours.
Yeah sorry I should have put a wink on the end but was still waking up at the time. I really rate KoC and think the performances and film are outstanding but was just trying to shorthand suggest why people are more likely to ride for the former rather than the latter. I think KoC is just too much of an oddity to ever become really popular outside critics circles, it crosses the accepted line between comedy and uncomfortable too much and isn't easy to pigeon hole. After Hours has similar moments but follows a more accepted structure. My opinion anyway.
By epic I was thinking more of a situation spiralling out of control from a simple coffee to suicide, lynch mobs and the like.
I hear all that. Both special films, both great dark comedies -- one that really camptures an interesting cultural moments and one really prescient about notions of media-obsession, celebrity etc. -- and both painfully underwatched, especially relative to the rest of the Scorsese canon.
This is like a triple bill plucked straight from my darkest nightmares.
So you probably don't like Friends or Will & Grace either???
I've never made it through more than thirty seconds of screeching on Will & Grace though have probably seen a few episodes of Friends in my time, I think it's impossible not to have done. It's not romantic comedies/sitcoms I have an issue with, just these particular movies.
Fisher King is a classic slice of Gilliam whimsy coupled with Robin Williams flitting between that I-am-a-sensitive-man face gurn and manic mugging.
The Brothers McMullen is just boring - like you point out, it's a sitcom/serial pilot stretched to feature length.
I don't hate When Harry Met Sally but find Billy Crystal more and more intolerable as the years go by.
Fair enough about Crystal - but this was classic. White man's overbite? Don't F*ck with Mr. Zero? SO ill.
But to further everyone's point, Woody Allen pretty much ethers this conversation altogether. BTW, Celebrity is really slept on, in my opinion, that's one of the later ones that I think REALLY emphasizes how well he captures the city.
I have to agree that the L.A.-centric "neo-noir" and action movies of the late 70s up to the 80s were really hit or miss. Hell, even the lowbrow, self-referential parodies and updates made better use of the city scenery (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Last Action Hero come to mind). 52 Pick-Up, which I saw recently, is awesome, though. The only problem is that it dates itself - between the neon lights and women who look like coke-damaged Whitesnake groupies who are supposed to represent "top porn stars"). It has all the 50s crime cliches, only without that pesky Hayes Code. Another Cannon Winner. I've never been to New York City, but it its the king location for Mafia flicks
The thing is that LA *could* offer as rich a setting as New York but so many films "about" LA really just end up being about Hollywood (which makes sense given how goddamn self-referential the town is) and that's predictably narrow.
Also:
For the genre, "When Harry Met Sally" holds up remarkably well. Nora Ephron peaked way too early; she's just churned out pretty weak shit since. I do wish Rob Reiner had eased off of biting "Annie Hall" so much in terms of the look and feel though.
you gotta enjoy the little things about Heat, you grumps. like val kilmer's nasty elbow in the scene where pacino goes to pick him up at his apartment. or the look sizemore gives the guy in the diner. or anything waingro related. scenes between pacino and his lady are
Comments
i went there for visual arts, but it really was like fame up in the school. dancers stretching in the hallway, painting, trumpeters blowing their horn etc.
on the first day of school freshman year, a bunch of dancers and singers broke out into a impromptu, though pretty great, version of the fame theme song. sadly they did not follow up with the more appropriate "hot lunch".
Inspired in form by American police TV shows and soap operas, The Golden Boat is a madcap, surreal dash through the streets of New York city, telling the mysterious and often hilarious story of an aged street-person named Austin, a comically compulsive assassin, as he joins up with a young rock critic and philosophy student named Israel Williams. In the course of their adventures, Austin pursues his object of desire - a Mexican soap opera star - and along the way engages a host of TV characters and bit players, whose repartee range from gangsterish insults to the question of God's existence.
It is such an arty/pseudo-academicy New York film, it's almost unbearable.
But I still have managed to watch it almost a dozen times.
Jim Jarmusch, Annie Sprinkle, Barbet Schroeder, Kathy Acker (RIP) cameo and Zorn did the music.
You see what I mean?
After Hours is an extremely funny movie with great performances, a truly dark edge and an epic plot. King Of Comedy stars Sandra Bernhardt and Jerry Lewis.
I've never made it through more than thirty seconds of screeching on Will & Grace though have probably seen a few episodes of Friends in my time, I think it's impossible not to have done. It's not romantic comedies/sitcoms I have an issue with, just these particular movies.
Fisher King is a classic slice of Gilliam whimsy coupled with Robin Williams flitting between that I-am-a-sensitive-man face gurn and manic mugging.
The Brothers McMullen is just boring - like you point out, it's a sitcom/serial pilot stretched to feature length.
I don't hate When Harry Met Sally but find Billy Crystal more and more intolerable as the years go by.
Hard To Kill: LA
Glimmer Man: New York cop transferred to LA
Seagal Verdict: Draw
hah. both of whom are terrific in it. Have you seen King of Comedy? Has all the qualities you ascribe to After Hours, with the proviso that I'm not sure what you mean by an epic plot re: a film that takes place in a 24-Hr span. And King of Comedy boasts my favorite performance from DeNiro.
Again, I also love After Hours.
Yeah sorry I should have put a wink on the end but was still waking up at the time. I really rate KoC and think the performances and film are outstanding but was just trying to shorthand suggest why people are more likely to ride for the former rather than the latter. I think KoC is just too much of an oddity to ever become really popular outside critics circles, it crosses the accepted line between comedy and uncomfortable too much and isn't easy to pigeon hole. After Hours has similar moments but follows a more accepted structure. My opinion anyway.
By epic I was thinking more of a situation spiralling out of control from a simple coffee to suicide, lynch mobs and the like.
On a side note, as much as I love Office Space, the opening sequence of After Hours where Dunne sits there as Pinchot waffles on, his voice slowly replaced by the sounds of Bach as the camera records the routines around him, is the greatest summary of the banality of office life I've ever seen.
Don't be hatin' on Q The Winged Serpent, now.
b/w
Larry Cohen FTW
+ God Told Me To.
I hear all that. Both special films, both great dark comedies -- one that really camptures an interesting cultural moments and one really prescient about notions of media-obsession, celebrity etc. -- and both painfully underwatched, especially relative to the rest of the Scorsese canon.
majorly
Fair enough about Crystal - but this was classic. White man's overbite? Don't F*ck with Mr. Zero? SO ill.
But to further everyone's point, Woody Allen pretty much ethers this conversation altogether. BTW, Celebrity is really slept on, in my opinion, that's one of the later ones that I think REALLY emphasizes how well he captures the city.
Also:
For the genre, "When Harry Met Sally" holds up remarkably well. Nora Ephron peaked way too early; she's just churned out pretty weak shit since. I do wish Rob Reiner had eased off of biting "Annie Hall" so much in terms of the look and feel though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJt6ZTR9ZZw
likes this.