When you're in love, everything feels like a movie, the sidewalks light up wherever you go and everything seems to be in perfect harmony. Then the relationship ends and after reality settles in again, you think back and it seems different, you realize you were kind of a dick and that the reason everything seemed beautiful was because you were too wrapped up in your own feelings to see what was really going on, how selfish and manipulative and cruel you were being even in the glow of new love. This movie is like a composite of both of those images, one layered right on top of the other, somehow making them fit together. Perfect harmony.

Scorsese, I love you but you're bringing me down

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A forceful backstage musical that fails to reconcile its realism and its operatic momentum. I find about every element is at odds with another in this film, but it's not for a lack of trying. Many components, like the central relationship, are successful on their own, but when placed into an overbearing epic scope, it falls under the heft of its own weight. Not only is this too fucking long, it's juggling everything at a high energy when the subtle, gentle moments find the greatest resonance. There's still much to admire about this, and it certainly isn't the worst Scorsese film, but it's among his weaker works, and it's not necessarily one that I yearn to reclaim or prop up as a hidden gem in his filmography.

winter break watch-list

martin scorsese one late night on the phone: wow, taxi driver is doing really well! okay, haha, get this… what if… i remade taxi driver but as a romantic musical?

hehe and somehow managed to make the main character even more unlikeable?

and there’s going to be no real narrative structure, we’re just gonna make up shit as we go along?!?

oooh, and de niro can have a big romance with someone that he has absolutely no chemistry with????

AND I’M GONNA MAKE IT THREE HOURS LONG

the poor movie producer on the other side of the line: haha, sure marty.

that same movie producer, circa 1977 when they are in fact making a romantic movie musical where robert de niro’s character is even more unlikeable than he was in taxi driver and it is in fact THREE HOURS LONG: marty, i thought that was a joke… marty… MARTY…

A true backstage musical, where the humans behind the happy (sappy) songs and beautiful melodies are flawed and tragic. Jimmy Doyle is, to borrow an old chitlin-circut joke, the kind of guy who would fart in the bathtub, turn around and bite the bubble. As someone who grew up in a household with an emotionally manipulative abuser, I found Doyle (and De Niro's portrayal) to be painfully true. The classic Hollywood artifice around the central drama is like the masking of an iris or the area outside of a spotlight. It risks distancing the audience by calling attention to the craft, but somehow it intensifies and illuminates the drama. Movie magic, I guess.

Don't have a ton to add to the discourse on what does or doesn't work about this, except to say that it's a hell of a big swing, especially since once you strip away the astounding artifice and Hollywood metadata and those heavily improvised performances, this is a simple story about a woman struggling to escape an abusive relationship.

one of the best films about emotional abuse that there’s ever been.

A film that felt, at some points, a bit slow. I liked the portrayal of Jimmy and Francine's relationship which could be caracterised as raw and passionate. The final act was great.

Wasn’t expecting this to be so dark, I mean it’s a musical?? but I mean it’s right after Taxi Driver so not sure what I was expecting. If you wanna watch Bobby make liza minelli alternately crazy horny/want to die for 3 hours this is your movie

failed New Hollywood musicals that nearly killed directors careers is my shit now I wonder if there’s any more attempts at them?? Both this and Coppola’s One From the Heart were splendid. I guess I’m not a 70s moviegoer sick to the back teeth of singing and dancing like back then

En iyi Martin Scorsese filmlerinde net top 5 e girer. La La land de de ilham kaynağı olduğu söyleniyor.

eu não acredito que chorei duas vezes, nesse filme e em la la land.

I'm sorry, but no matter how much I try I can't like a musical.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

holy shit its clarence clemons

“it is reported that Scorsese's addiction to cocaine and complete lack of control over the improvisation of dialogue on the set were major factors that contributed to the failure of the film.”

I thought that’s what makes it brilliant?

The movie definitely gives me the vibe of a chaotic Phantom Thread from time to time, but it’s ~30 minutes too long for me. I get the point: Jimmy is a jerk. Jimmy is a control freak. Spending an extra 30 minutes depicting Jimmy as a jerk from multiple aspects doesn’t make him, let’s say, a more versatile jerk that deserves any sympathy.

Dale un genero cinematográfico, un tema y una historia y Martin Scorsese te entregara servido en bandeja un relato épico con todo eso.
Acá es el musical, el jazz y dos personajes que juntos pueden dar lo mejor de si a la vez que generarse mucho dolor.

Hay tanto de musical como de cine clásico, es Broadway y Hollywood a la misma vez, es cinematográfica y teatral. Tiene tantos momentos íntimos y medidos muy bueno como grandes despliegues artificiosos donde la realidad queda suspendida en favor del espectáculo y la fantasía. Y todo esta perfectamente presentado.

Como en muchas de sus primeras películas Scorsese combina a la perfección su estilo que comienza a definir como su homenaje a los maestros que lo cultivaron.

Inmensa película en todos sus aspectos.

Yes, yes, yes yes yes!

New York, New York is muddled. It takes more than two hours to lean into being a full-on musical, but still has musical performances throughout. There's a heightened reality at times that feels like something from the Golden Age of Hollywood, with noticeable artifice. But not the whole time. It fluctuates. It's enjoyable to watch. I love the set and costume design, and the picture is framed very nicely. I didn't connect with the story too much, but in the end it was still an enjoyable hodgepodge of stuff.