Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Petri Pelkonen New York Stories (1989) consists of three shorts with the central theme being New York City.It's directors are Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.From that trio you could expect something better, but the result is very mediocre.The first story is Scorsese's Life Lessons, loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler.It tells about the relationship between a painter called Lionel Dobie and Paulette, his apprentice and former lover.The second story is Life Without Zoë by Coppola.It's about a rich schoolgirl.Allen's story is Oedipus Wrecks.It tells about a Jewish New York lawyer, who has problems with his mother.She doesn't like her son's fiancé Lisa, and the mother starts hovering above the city and telling embarrassing stories of her son.The actor list looks great.Nick Nolte is Lionel.Rosanna Arquette plays Paulette.Steve Buscemi is Gregory Stark.Illeana Douglas is Paulette's Friend.Deborah Harry is Girl at Blind Alley.Heather McComb is Zoë.Giancarlo Giannini is her father and Talia Shire the mother.Holly Marie Combs is Costume Party Guest.Adrien Brody appears in his first film role as Mel.Woody Allen is Sheldon.Mia Farrow is Lisa.Mae Questel plays the mother.Julie Kavner portrays Treva.Larry David is Theater Manager.Kirsten Dunst is Lisa's Daughter.Mike Starr is Hardhat.From the three I liked Scorsese's the best.Nick Nolte's performance was intense.I also liked Allen's work.The magic show scene was funny, after which the mother disappeared.Coppola's was the weakest of the three.This is worth seeing, even though I expected something better.

Rectangular_businessman "New York Stories " it's a collection of three shorts made by Martin Scorsese ,Francis Ford Coppola ,and Woody Allen . The ending result ,even when it isn't the best work of those filmmakers , at least was very enjoyable to watch , and give us the chance their different styles . The first ,By Martin Scorsese"Life lessons " it's my favorite .The short story it's very well developed and the direction was quite good . It have nice music too . The second "Life Without Zoe " by Francis Ford Coppola is the short who received more bad reviews . Actually isn't bad ,but the story was very different to the other two .Anyway ,I liked it too . The third "Oedipus Wrecks " by Woody Allen , it's the funniest . The story it's very funny ,the script is clever and it is a satisfying ending for the trilogy . Although "New York Stories " isn't a perfect movie ,it is a worth watching .

jzappa New York Stories is another anthology film that I was suckered into because of the credentials. Other anthology films that I've seen, like Four Rooms, have not been very good despite the amazing credentials. I haven't been a fan of most movies with more than one director, hence more than one vision thus many colliding like an orchestra playing unharmonious notes. New York Stories is satisfactory however, eve if its mood swings leave one feeling many different ways about it. You'll feel stimulated, yet strangely unfulfilled.Martin Scorsese's segment, Life Lessons, is very melodramatic in that hardened, grungy way of his. Nolte gives a wonderful performance, very intense, and Arquette is very realistic and effective. Scorsese employs his usual machine gun multi-genre soundtrack and plunging, stylistically passionate and energetic cinematography. His segment says something very profound and important about the human characteristic of selfishness and how much more abundant it is in ourselves than we care to accept.Then comes Francis Ford Coppola's segment, Life Without Zoe. Arg. The acting, despite the leniency one may generously give child actors, is awful. Heather McComb did in fact fill out very very nicely when she grew up, but that does not excuse her very scripted performance here. She's the least of the cast's problems, though. Everyone sounds like the salesmen on the used car commercials. The story is something quite silly. Perhaps it would be fine if it were its own film, but Coppola had to know that he was being teamed with Scorsese, his fellow creator of quintessential Mafia cinema, and Woody Allen, the prolific source of mature and sophisticated comedies about sex and relationships. Did he submit this segment for shock value? I guess so. Well, it worked. I don't understand why Coppola works with kids. His daughter Sophia, who at age 18 here co-wrote the script and designed the costumes, did in fact go on to become a fine director herself, but did he not notice his pattern after awhile? He makes The Conversation, the Godfather films, and Apocalypse Now, and we think he's found his niche. Then he starts making movies like this, following up with films like Jack with Robin Williams.Woody Allen's segment saves the film. I suppose this is one way anthology movies are interesting. In a single feature-length narrative film, when it takes a plunge in the middle, it can't really be saved in the end, especially if it was as bad as Coppola's segment. In an anthology, if the middle of the movie is terrible, you still have the end to look forward to. This is the case in New York Stories, because Woody Allen's segment, Oedipus Wrecks, the final third of the movie, is hilarious. It's one of the funniest satires he's ever done of the Jewish Brooklynite's culture. It's goofy in a subtle way, and fascinatingly surreal the way a lot of Allen's best and most creative work is. Actually, Oedipus Wrecks is perhaps the only one of the three parts that actually clearly represents a hue of New York's culture. Scorsese's part didn't represent New York as much as it represented the emotional tempests of an artist and happened to take place in the meatpacking district. Coppola's mid-section represented the lives of wealthy children whose lives are so free that they live practically like very spoiled and gossipy adults, but to such an outlandish degree of family-oriented fantasy that it's not at all credible. Woody Allen firmly focuses upon his division of New York culture. And by the by, it's a very pleasant surprise to see a younger Larry David, pre-Seinfeld and pre-Curb Your Enthusiasm, in a bit role in Oedipus Wrecks.Whatever was going through Coppola's mind, it's because of him that New York Stories can be described as a film in the shape of a circular saw. It's on one level, then takes a ninety- degree plunge to a different level, then again with the third segment it takes a ninety-degree ascension to the precise level it was at before.

writerasfilmcritic I was at first skeptical when confronted with Nolte's stereotypical version of an artist in "Life Lessons." The guy is bearded, long-haired, unkempt, unwashed, and generally unappealing. Further, he puts on rock music to fuel his inspiration and cranks it up LOUD. Yet his off-beat interpretation grew on me. By the time the story was over, I was impressed. He did a more than credible job with the role, helped along by whomever was actually doing the painting. Just as interesting was his oft-pathetic interaction with Rosanna Arquette, who plays his delectable but cruel "assistant." She is jealous of his artistic success, fed up with his ambivalence toward her own work, and tired of his disturbing habits. I've seen her in a handful of roles and she never looked more attractive or did a better job, her "Joni Mitchell" sort of appeal at its most layered and alluring. Nolte, as the painter, was so hung up on her that he would do anything to keep her around. For example, he takes her to a party and watches helplessly as she leaves with a young upstart, returns with the guy to Nolte's own loft, and then spends the night with him right under her mentor's nose. Ooooo! That hadda hurt.I agree with the other reviews that wondered what the heck the Coppola flick was doing in the middle of this otherwise interesting montage. It would've been far more appropriate as the after school movie on TV.The Woody Allen flick, "Oedipus Wrecks," was quite amusing. Nothing much to say about it other than it was a fairly typical Woody Allen movie. I always wondered how, in real life, Mia Farrow could go from Frank Sinatra to Woody Allen, such different sorts of men, but that's another question entirely. Both Farrow and Allen deliver good performances here. I especially liked his zany antics with the psychic.