Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)

Writer-director Paul Mazursky's ode to his colorful hungry years, and the experience of leaving home for the first time and setting out on your own. Cheeky Jewish graduate from Brooklyn in 1953 relocates to the Village, getting an apartment, a semi-serious girlfriend, and a spot in the avant garde crowd. Though his mother disapproves, our hero, working in a health food shop, studies to be an actor, gets his girl pregnant, and clearly sees the dreams and hopes of his new friends flair up and fizzle out--yet never losing his own personal ambition. Mazursky, who also co-produced the film, has created a meticulously-detailed encapsulation of a particular time and place, peopled with characters one can easily recognize. There's a sweet simplicity in the protagonist's friendships--and with his over-protective parents--but nothing is really nuanced for us. Mazursky lays it all right there on the surface (which is why the film will work best on a first-time viewing: everything you need to catch can be caught). While it isn't always subtle, and the gloppy cinematography and poor lighting sometimes causes the actors to look a bit frightful, the movie has a very big heart. This is detectable early on, yet it isn't until the finale that you come to appreciate what the characters have gone through (the parents as well). The picture is also a showcase for lots of budding talent circa 1976, with Chris Walken, Antonio Fargas, Dori Brenner, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Egan, and John C. Becher all doing terrific bits of business. In the lead, Lenny Baker is photographed very badly (with his jagged teeth glinting in the movie lights), but he warms to his role, and by the finish has created a three-dimensional man whom we really hope will succeed. **1/2 from ****

I saw it yesterday... I liked it, being a part of a "bohemian" writers group in the early 1990s, I got the vibe of the film.SPOILERS However, for me, the movie had an ugliness that I don't think was intended by the director: The sharing of Sarah's abortion, from the initial decision to the actual work, should've had more "punch" - it's almost as if no one cared, or considered it not a big deal (Sarah does, later, though, but maybe the impact isn't that much).Suicide. Man, if one of my friends - a best friend - was *that* suicidal, there would be some real action. At the time, the loony bin probably would've been the right place, with a lobotomy, 'natch.This is a disguised R-rated version of "Friends," though they're younger, more stupid, and yet more grown-up, but, but, aren't there some serious wars going on? I didn't catch that anyone got drafted or that anyone had older siblings who were killed in WWII, etc.When the movie came out, I was 13 and my parents, both of whom were in their late teens in 1953, expressed no interest in this movie. I don't necessarily know why, but when the Academy Awards show was on, later, I asked what the movie was about, was it about a subway ride? I recall my mother saying "it's about New York City in the 1950's" or something like that.Worth seeing because the acting on all fronts is really good and it's fun to see Christopher Walken in what is an uncharacteristic role - at least after all these years. Antonio Fargas is really amazing, but I wish the film had gone a bit deeper into his story, or at least developed him some more (like, what does he do for art?). Shelly Winters is superb to the point that her scenes are hard to separate from reality.

I always try to see movies that aren't very well known. I do like to watch blockbusters as well, but I think that not every movie that didn't get too much attention isn't worth anything. Sometimes I discover some nice little gems. Sometimes, but not this time although it certainly isn't as bad as you might fear now...This movie starts with a young man who is about to leave his parents home so he can live on his own and become an actor. Of course this goes hand in hand with a lot of drama, as mom doesn't want to see her 'little boy' leave the house so soon. But his mind has been made up and Larry Lapinsky moves from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village. Here he meets new people and soon he has a lot of friends, all with their own problems and worries...This movie has some excellent moments to offer (for instance when mom shows up with a chicken, because she fears that her son doesn't get enough to eat), but sometimes it could have been a bit more subtle in my opinion. It was a bit too stereotypical to be a really great movie, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch of course. I give it a 6.5/10.

Possibly the most underrated movie of all time. It ranks with the best films of the greatest movie decade (70's). I think a lot of that can be blamed on the fact that it's both funny and autobiographical, which is fine for movie critics sitting in a movie theater for an 1 and 1/2, but does not hold up well when they set their pen to paper and try to come up with the most important, serious and influential movies of a year or decade. Most comic directors and writers suffer this fate, even Woody Allen, who is given false credit for his serious films (Manhattan, Hannah, Crimes) and less for his funniest (Sleeper, Annie Hall and Manhattan Murder Mystery). Mazursky deserves to be given the chance to put his personal movie making gifts out on the scene. He's one of the best.