The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies
Nominate-best-2010

Review: New York, I Love You

A collection of acting and screenwriting exercises
By PETER KEOUGH  |  October 14, 2009
2.0 2.0 Stars

 

The multi-episode portmanteau movie is usually less than the sum of its parts. If Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Coppola couldn’t pull it off in New York Stories 20 years ago, you can hardly blame Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Shekhar Kapur, Allen Hughes, Natalie Portman, and six other filmmakers for not faring any better this time out, even with a dream cast that includes Julie Christie, John Hurt, Robin Wright Penn, Burt Young, Eli Wallach, and Cloris Leachman.

Despite a feeble interlinking plot and some contrived serendipity and irony, most of these tales of con men, artists, losers, and lovers come off as acting and screenwriting exercises. The exception is Fatih Akin’s near-wordless fable about an old artist (Ugur Yücel) who’s obsessed with the face of a beautiful Chinese herbalist (Shu Qi).

Maybe that’s because Shu’s face is one that could provoke such obsession, and Yücel’s mirrors a soul besotted and transformed.

Related: What Just Happened, Review: Public Enemies, Review: My Sister's Keeper, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , New York, Celebrity News, Eli Wallach,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
HTML Prohibited
Add Comment

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: EDGE OF DARKNESS  |  February 05, 2010
    A new genre is emerging in which aging A-list actors play fathers off on a rampage to rescue their daughters or avenge their deaths.
  •   REVIEW: FROZEN  |  February 03, 2010
    A storm is coming, the girl has to pee, and then things get much worse.
  •   KAREN SCHMEER: 1970-2010  |  February 02, 2010
    Karen Schmeer, the brilliant local film editor whose work on Errol Morris's documentary The Fog of War helped win it the Best Documentary Oscar in 2004, died January 29 in a tragic accident, struck by a getaway car as she was crossing a street in Manhattan. She would have turned 40 on February 20.
  •   IS THERE 'HOPE' IN HOLLYWOOD?  |  January 29, 2010
    Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.
  •   REVIEW: WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON  |  January 27, 2010
    Much scarier than 2012 is this documentary about the death grip that fundamentalist religious groups have on American politics.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group