Crossing Delancey reminds me of another great "Chicago" movie: Return to Me.

Is Green Card particularly NYC with the whole apartment plot or is that more generic urban living? (I LOVE the apartment in that movie, I think it's the real star.)

In fact, I declare Trying To Fight Your Way Across NYC to be its own genre, which includes The Warriors, After Hours, Quick Change, Escape from New York, and Harold Ramis' unproduced Ghostbusters 3 script.

Tom totally wins.

I haven't seen Green Card, which surprises me. I love Crossing Delancey, though.

I LOVE the apartment in that movie, I think it's the real star

As it is in Rosemary's Baby and Single White Female.

SWF is practically apartment porn, since it's so impossible that they could live there.

Ooh, another genre!

Ultimate New York film! The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. It's teh awesomest!!

Dog Day Afternoon, really? I love that movie, but I don't know if I agree, since the setting is so limited. I know the actual event took place in Brooklyn, but it could have been any big city, don't you think?

Attica! Attica! If it's any big city, it's a big city inside New York State, which -- I'm not sure I buy that taking place in Albany, you know?

I have never seen The Seven Samurai, but I have seen Yojimbo, which is much slower than a modern film would be, and much less drawn-out with cross-cut closeups. Sign of the times. And yet, when Mifune walks down that street, hands on his hips, you can see him casting a shadow in the shape of Clint Eastwood. It's weird and amazing.

I watched a lot of Kurosawa last year. The only one that didn't feel like homework was Rashomon.

Yeah, I remember liking that one well enough, since it was interesting to see the different perspectives. I think I fell asleep during Ran and/or Throne of Blood. Maybe I'm just not a Kurosawa person.

That's not how *I* remember it....

Snerk.

And yet, when Mifune walks down that street, hands on his hips, you can see him casting a shadow in the shape of Clint Eastwood. It's weird and amazing.

Heh. I also wanted to mention that in Seven Samurai, Toshiro Mifune's ass deserved its own credit.

So to finish off my Fourth of July Longass Movie Doubleheader, I watched Nashville. And I actually liked it quite a bit, even if it didn't hold my interest at every second. I loved how real it seemed, as if this Nashville were real and the people were real, and they were just doing real-people things. And even though I don't generally like plotless movies, I found that in a movie with 24 major characters, there's always something going on, plotwise, and even if you're not focusing on a movie-long trajectory, you're distracted enough by all the mini trajectories. I found it very interesting overall. Moreso because I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was liking it.

Also, Opal is frickin' hilarious. The school bus monologue is priceless.

Okay, Roger Ebert basically says everything I'd want to say. (Although he refers to an "attempted" assassination. I thought it was successful. That was the impression I got, at least.)

Mmm, I just realized something. This is a movie where characters are defined by their actions, not their words.

Did I somehow miss the Woody Allen movies in the NY lists? I was sort of scanning, so it's possible. But talk about city-as-character...

Trailer for Jane Austen Book Club: [link]

Good cast, even though it looks kind of... well, fluffy. Also: Marc Blucas!