NEW YORK STORIES
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Disney/Touchstone anthology fails to do
anything great. I recommend that audiences see the first and
third segments and skip the second one. I am not sure how
they'd do that.
The multi-episode film, while it goes back at least as far as D. W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE, had its real blossoming in the 1940s and 1950s with films such as DEAD OF NIGHT, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE, FLESH AND FANTASY, QUARTET, and TRIO. In the 1960s it was mostly reserved for the horror film, with entries such as BLACK SABBATH, SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, the non-horror BOCCACCIO '70, and a whole series of horror anthology films from Amicus Films of Britain. Arguably, even last year's ARIA might be included, but in general multi-episode films have almost disappeared. Now Disney's Touchstone has given three popular directors a chance to work with a shorter-than-feature-length piece.
"Life Lessons" by Martin Scorsese has Nick Nolte as a popular artist who is behind schedule painting for a show of his works coming up in three weeks. His girlfriend, just returning from a fling with another man, comes back to live in Nolte's studio and re-begin a stormy relationship with Nolte. The artist channels his rage into a painting fury. The story has a not-too-surprising semi-twist ending. There is a lot of shouting, a lot of loud 1960s music, and one nice piece of music from Puccini's TURNADOT. There is sound and fury, signifying something, but perhaps not enough. I would rate this segment a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Francis Ford Coppola's "Life Without Zoe" is essentially a children's film, a genre Coppola does surprisingly well in. His Zoetrope company made the very good THE BLACK STALLION. Coppola falls just a little flat here. "Life Without Zoe" is about a poor little fantastically rich kid who lives under the guardianship of a kindly and funny butler in a posh New York hotel. By sheer force of good, Zoe is able to solve a big problem for her father and to bring about the reconciliation of her parents. You don't have to be poor to be happy. Aren't you pleased? I give this one a -1.
The final segment, "Oedipus Wrecks," is a Woody Allen fantasy about a little Jewish nebbish whose life is made miserable by his embarrassing and manipulative mother. Deep down he wishes for her just to disappear. Some supernatural force grants his wish only to make things a lot worse for him. While never hilarious, this film has more jokes per minute than any film Allen has made since LOVE AND DEATH. I rate it a +1.
Overall, I give NEW YORK STORIES a high 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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