Post by StevePulaski on Nov 14, 2017 13:36:51 GMT -5
New York Stories (1989)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen
Directed by: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen
Woody Allen is aghast when his mother (Mae Questel) reappears in the sky after disappearing in the short Oedipus Wrecks.
"Life Lessons:" ★★½
"Life Without Zoë:" ★½
"Oedipus Wrecks:" ★★½
Overall Rating: ★★
NOTE: Part of "Woody Allen Mondays," an ongoing movie-watching event.
New York Stories is an anthology comprised of three short films directed by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen. Everyone but Coppola is a native of New York, but that doesn't stop him from using the Big Apple as an influence on many of his stories. Presumably conceived as equal parts homage and a swift showcase of three invaluable contributers to film, New York Stories disappointingly crumbles due to its ability to paint New York and its inhabitants as uncharacteristic to other bigger cities.
Adding to the disappointment is how half-baked these shorts feel: Scorsese's feels like it's moments away from achieving something of a lasting impact, yet never does, Coppola's is a directionless misfire, and Allen surprises by never finding a delicate balance between comedy and justification. I believe the only way to adequately review this anthology - since there is no frame-story nor wraparound skit, so to speak - is by grading the entire project as a sum of its parts.
Let's begin where we always should, at the beginning with Scorsese's "Life Lessons." The short echoes Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Gambler in following a grizzled codger named Lionel Dobie, played appropriately by Nick Nolte. Dobie is an abstract painter who resides in a spacious loft in New York City who finds himself at the mercy of his stunted creativity. His infatuation with Paulette (Rosanna Arquette), a young woman who serves as his apprentice after being his girlfriend, keeps him going, although Dobie can't bring himself to recognize her recent rendezvous with a cocky performance artist played by Steve Buscemi.
Dobie's motivations are cloudy yet interesting. He is a man not so much in lust with Paulette but in lust with the idea of lust; the idea that a woman can enter one's life and prompt both inspiration and pleasure. Dobie is not committed to Paulette; there's far too many women in the world and time is fleeting. What "Life Lessons" offers us is a snapshot into his psyche, a man so consumed with a woman that, at one moment, with little hesitance, he'll waltz up to a police officer's cruiser in the dead of night with intention to kiss the cop behind the wheel because his muse told him to do so. The next, he can barely stand to look in her direction as he blasts his music and smears his paint onto a canvas.
Nolte and Arquette are strong assets, but Scorsese's short feels like it's missing one or two key scenes that drive the themes behind this story home. I felt like I grasped a good portion of the short's idea, yet I also feel like I needed a bit more to get over the hump. I admire its tendency to cast a murky light on Dobie's motivations (the reason he assaults Paulette's date in one scene is open for multiple interpretations), but where it really needs a bit of an affirmation, it falls short.
Following "Life Lessons" is Coppola's "Life Without Zoë," a shockingly bad short with little life and no real direction. The titular character is a schoolgirl played by Heather McComb, who resides in a luxurious loft with her father's (Giancarlo Giannini) intermittent presence rendering her in the company of her loyal butler (Don Novello). He gets her ready for school as she trots down New York's busiest streets looking like a young Shirley Temple. She also becomes a key asset when a valuable piece of jewelry belonging to an Arab princess is stolen by a band of robbers (one of whom a hilariously misplaced Chris Elliott). In the meantime, Zoë also tries to make piece with her mother as well as tell us about the significance her father, a flute soloist, and his love for the flute has with her.
This is a woefully misconceived short largely because there are roughly three different plot-threads that hardly intersect and messily come together to form a project without purpose. Another issue is that "Life Without Zoë" doesn't characterize New York besides painting it as an exclusionary city built for those who have servants to pick out their clothes for them every morning. Zoë is an impossibly unrelatable character to boot, the short has no emotional substance, and Coppola doesn't appear to know what he's trying to do or say with such a sloppy, unclear ode.
Finally, there's Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks," and it's as Allen-esque as white Windsor texts on a black background. The short revolves Allen as a lawyer who is burdened by his domineering mother (Mae Questel, the late voice of Betty Boop), who critiques his outfits, his attitude, and his fiancee (Mia Farrow). The three get the rudest of awakenings when they attend a magic show and his mother is asked to be a part of the famous Chinese box trick. She slips into the box, the magician and his assistant stab large swords through each surface, and the trick is initially successful, yet perhaps too successful when its subject disappears without a trace.
Our character's mother soon reappears in the sky, further embarrassing her son by engaging crowds of distracted New Yorkers. Of all the shorts, this one has the best ensemble, complete with Julie Kavner and Larry David in small roles. While it's also the most effectively comedic, Allen has a hard time getting it to say anything of lasting impact. The short was made after Allen had completed and subsequently released the nostalgic Radio Days and the intensely dramatic September and Another Woman, so his comic sensibilities were put on hold for a while until this short was released (he then followed this up with Crimes and Misdemeanors, one of his best, most on-point films).
"Oedipus Wrecks" is the most amusing short of the lot, while "Life Lessons" has the most potential, despite not quite capitalizing on it, and "Life Without Zoë" is just an unfortunate mess from the start. New York Stories could've and should've been a charismatic and layered project that showed why the three men behind these shorts have come to be synonymous with film. Instead, it's a forgettable assemblage of sub-par parts that come together to form a project lacking cohesion and resonance in a city that has enough of the latter for a ten-part anthology and then some.
Starring: Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Heather McComb, Giancarlo Giannini, Don Novello, Woody Allen, Mae Questel, Mia Farrow, and Julie Kavner. Directed by: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen.