New York Stories

1989 anthology movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Three New York stories taking place in New York, a place of stories.

Each of these three shorts has a cameo that put a smile on my face. I loved seeing a young Buscemi in the Scorsese short. That is actually more than a cameo though. He gets a nice monologue and everything. Then, Coppola's story has Chris Elliott playing a thief. And then there's none other than Larry David in the Woody Allen short.

Scorsese's chunk of this, a story of an ornery abstract artist played terrifically by a barely-hinged Nick Nolte--the best kind of Nick Nolte--is almost great. The stylish peep-hole shots were cool, reminding me a little of a silent movie move, and I really loved watching all these incomprehensible paint swirl shots. Nolte really is great even if most of his lines in the second half of this are some variation of "I love you" or "I'll do anything for you."

Woody Allen's turn comes last, but it's the second best. The idea is solid, the kind you get the sense was bouncing around in various forms for a long time before he finally decided it just wouldn't work as a feature-length film. Mae Questel is great as Woody's mom, and a handful of funny lines--typical Woody Allen 70's stuff, I'd say--and Allen's expressions during a magic trick make this worth watching.

I hated every second of Coppola's story in this, and I think I might hate Coppola. How can somebody related to Nicolas Cage be so devoid of talent? Things start badly with a 12-year-old's voice over where she goes on and on about a flute, and then it somehow gets worse with this gross King Creole song about that 12-year-old, Zoe. The acting, aside from Chris Elliott who is always great, is terrible across the board, and I swear, two actors look directly at the camera at two different points in this thing. It's an embarrassment in the middle of two much-better offerings.