He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved (or not)
I'm moving to New York next month. More on that at a later date, but for now, does anyone have words of wisdom for a soon to be New Yorker who grew up in a small, southern town and stuck to the suburbs in D.C.? What's the best place to see a movie (blockbuster, art house, or revival), drink coffee and work on an article, eat brunch? What's the best New York movie, the one that "gets" the city, its aesthetic, its people, its flaws or strengths? Arts, culture, housing, funny stories, tirades--whatever you've got. Cause I've got zip.
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posted by Peter @ 1/22/2007 11:50:00 AM
4 Comments:
Here's a good movie that'll help you get your bearings. "Chopper Chicks In Zombietown"
I used to be scared of NYC. Would make the occasional journalistic day-trip, and be unnerved by the pace and density of the Manhattan (as opposed to a more hospitable big city like Chicago).
Then I lived for a couple of months in Battery Park in lower Manhattan, and got into the groove. Best thing of all: walking. Great to just walk up and down and across Manhattan... you can cover a lot of ground, and always be in the midst of something interesting.
Welcome (soon) to NYC. I moved here 19 years ago from the suburbs of DC. Join the Film Forum for best movie revivals, go to the Anthology Film Archives for movies you want to tell people you've seen.
Seeing a Movie - I like to got to one of the big places on 42nd St (the AMC Empire 25 or the Loews E-Walk acorss the street). Even though this means dealing with Time Square-area crowds, it is pretty easy to get there by subway and get from there to almost anywhere else by subway. These two theaters will generally be showing just about anything I'd want to see, except for the really small art/foreign films.
In the case of art/foreign films, there aren't too many places I really like - there are a bunch I do go to grudgingly. The Film Forum on west Houston Street generally has (usually) impeccably programmed revival series, but I don't think I've ever seen a movie there without someone in the audience acting like a complete jackass - i.e. talking non-stop through a silent film, laughing at every single one of John Wayne's line readings in Rio Bravo, because, heh - he sounds like someone doing a John Wayne impression I guess, etc. This was also where I was in the worst audience of my film-going career: a screening of the bitter Irwin Kershner movie Loving that the audience took as pure camp as they guffawed their way through it.
More on art houses: If I can help it, I will generally try to see an art house movie at any place besides the Angelika (also on Houston), because it gets very crowded and the management usually doesn't have their act together. I prefer the smaller places (like Cinema Village or the Quad Cinema) or the Lincoln Plaza Cinema (which has an older crowd).
Drinking coffee - This really depends. I live in Astoria, where there are really no good places like this 9apart from Starbucks). I work in midtown Manhattan, ditto. However, it shouldn't be a problem if you live downtown or in one of the hip Brooklyn neighborhoods.
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