Alphabet City (1984)

Just perfect...

Absolutely Fantastic

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Just recently, I was flipping through the channels on my television and also looking up what time Alphabet City was going to be on. I've heard of this movie a little bit. It has no score on the movie critic website, Rotten Tomatoes. Before I saw this movie, I saw a Siskel and Ebert episode that was filmed in 1984 and they actually reviewed the movie and disliked it. From there on, my suspicions began to rise. I had to see what this movie was or is about.What a real letdown. Alphabet City is about a New York City teenager named Johnny, (Vincent Spano), who works for the mob in the lower East Side of Manhattan called "Alphabet City". Johnny has a wife, (Kate Vernon), and also a baby. He also has a loving mother, who begs him to go straight and also a sister who is part of a escort service. But, Johnny's arrogance gets the better of him when he is asks to burn down his mother's house. Johnny ignores this task and decides that the only way to solve this problem is to take his wife and his baby out of the apartment and flee the mobsters. The mob now want the streets back, but Johnny isn't willing to give it up. He also wheels and deals in his wife's Trans-Am and on several occasions, visits the local crack den called "The Store".After seeing Alphabet City, I was very disappointed for a lot of reasons. The visual style of the movie looks very overdone with the amount of colors that the filmmakers use during the production of this movie. Furthermore, the visuals is the only thing that I liked throughout this movie. But, it isn't anything special or interesting. The way that the actors' faces are illuminated with lights make you think that their own faces were lit by cheap neon-lights. At certain times during the viewing of this movie, I found it very difficult to see through the thick fog that was shown entirely throughout the film. One sure example of that would be the scene in which Johnny pays a visit to his drug dealing friend at "The Store." I guess the filmmakers really had to get their hands on a fog machine to created a lot of fog in the movie.I never really care about Johnny or his troubles. I think what I expect to see in a movie like this is conviction. Vincent Spano is a very good actor when it comes to getting the leading role. He had made a good movie before Alphabet City, which was "Baby, It's You." But, here, I didn't really think he played Johnny really well. All of the supporting characters are not the least interesting. Johnny's friend, who's a drug dealer, isn't the least bit interesting or appealing because we never care about him. I believe that if Johnny's friend was more careful in his actions, we would've care more about him. Instead, there isn't a single moment in Alphabet City, where we take the crime matter seriously. In comparison to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, the crime matter and the characters were interesting because we care about them and also lacks predictability. Harvey Keitel's character in Mean Streets was believable because he was guilt- ridden and never wanting to let go of his wrongdoings. Here, it's almost as if the actors were playing dress-up time and wander through an aimless plot and story.Beyond that, the other supporting moments in the movie don't work either. There's a shootout in a elevator that isn't really thrilling or exciting. The climax of the movie is so laughable that I wouldn't really dare to tell you what happens in the end or tell you. There's too many scenes involving Johnny driving around in the middle of the night in his wife's car. Not at all the least interesting. The scenes all look like they would work in a MTV stylized music video. It doesn't work in a motion picture, especially in this. I think what I expected from Alphabet City is a sense of grittiness and realism rather than a fantasy. Now, that would've worked. ★ 1 star.

Ultra-Low-Budget but done with a panache that is still somewhat beautiful today with its garish nightlife colors and an Artistic Flare that is rarely achieved in this type of Quickie. This is a Sleeper and is a fine example of what you can do with limited resources.This has more appeal than a lot of Mainstream Movies with huge amounts of Money and very little Talent. The street scenes have a glamorous gritty look and remind one of a Comic Book or something out of the imagination.This is an underrated, underground Film treat and could be defined as a Cult Movie that has yet to be acknowledged for what it is. A great looking, surreal, well-done take on a time of opulence and decadence, shown here as a picture postcard from a Twilight Zone. Nothing here is presented or meant to be realistic. It is a swath of decay presented as a twinkling other place that is as accessible as it is disturbing.Kudos to all involved, especially the Cinematographer and the Art Designer. But it took a group effort to pull this one off and make it so much better, Artistically, because it hardly stood a chance and rose above its restraints and Money-Men meddling.

A street lieutenant for the New York branch of the Mafia (Vincent Spano) is ordered by his boss to burn down the house that his mother, father and sister live in. Spano's younger sister (Jamie Gertz) is in the process of becoming a call girl. Plus his street connection (Michael Winslow) has a habit of using some of the heroin that he's supposed to be selling for Spano. Also Spano has to make the rounds through an abandoned tenement building where addicts wait in line to buy their heroin, in order to collect the night's profits and deliver them to the big Mafia boss (Raymond Serra). Of the characters mentioned, they are all fairly decently portrayed as parts of the overall depridation of the decaying urban environment, which looks pretty good in the film's use of color cinematography which looks as if it's been shot with gauze over the lens. The dilemma that Spano's character faces, of having to burn down the building in which his parents and sister live in order to stay in good with the Mafia sets up a tough ending showdown with the Mafia boss Serra. All in all, this film is rather a pleasant surprise.

Overlooked movie from 1984. As a movie I give it a 7 but as a 1980's "street drama" I give it a 10. excellent performance by a young Jamie Gertz as the whiny little sister coming of age in the cement Jungles of NY. Vince Spano I thought gave a realistic performance as the young street hustler who was actually a nice guy underneath. Michael Windslow, the human sound effects guy who made his fame in the "Police Academy" movies was really good as drug house leader who is slowly spinning into a life as a junkie.The Music....Now the music was just amazing. It was written by Nile Rogers from the disco era Chic. There is music on there that I have never been able to find anywhere. Look for a song called "Lady Luck"Anyone who was a young adult in the 80's will see a blast from the past especially if they were around the big cities. It has its cheesy moments but all in all a decent flick.Rent it from Net Flix.