Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)

Load of rubbish!!

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Paul Mazursky's wonderful ode to struggling actors in 1953 New York. It's not exactly a comedy and not exactly a drama, but a mix of both. Lenny Baker is Larry Lipinsky, a Brooklyn transplant living the bohemian life Greenwich Village. Shelley Winters (in an utterly outrageous performance) is his suffocating mother. The movie is populated with one eccentric character after another from Christopher Walken's pretentious poet to Antonio Fargas's flamboyant dandy to Lois Smith's tragic depressant. The movie is very flavorful and extremely well acted. Baker, who died less than ten years later, gives what should have been a career making performance. Jeff Goldblum pops up as an extremely ridiculous actor. Somehow this film is largely forgotten --- it's a real buried treasure.

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'm with the room, this film has been sadly overlooked as it was at the time of it's release (even Mazursky champion Pauline Kael was Luke warm) and deserves to be seen. I think this sort of autobiographical film had sort of been overdone, so Mazurky's film was lumped in as "one of those." What was missed, I think, was his unsentimental, adult perspective on the time and place, on what it meant to be young and bright. He gives us something of what the beak nick world might have been like, unlike the silly portrayals done AT THE TIME.Lenny Baker, in his only major lead, is excellent along with the entire cast. Christopher Walken makes an impression without the hamming that would later endear him to so many.

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.