New York City is an endless subject and source for filmmakers. It’s where anything can happen, and there exists a reliable pool of great actors, still unmatched on the East Coast. It’s home to a plethora of movies and TV productions.
Three new movies of variable ambitions, variable budgets, and variable success document life in New York now.
Allswell in New York
Directed by Ben Snyder
The most successful film of the bunch starts in the East Village and moves to Brooklyn. Allswell in New York is an ambitious showcase for a largely Nuyorican* cast and its fuel is its women characters.
Daisy (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is part owner of a bar named Allswell, (a fulcrum for the action). Daisy has brought to town Nina, the pregnant young woman (Mackenzie Lansing) she found on Craigslist, who has agreed to give Daisy the adoption of her newborn. Ida, Daisy’s sister who runs a clinic, has found their ailing addict brother Desmond (Felix Solis) and brought him to the hospital. Serene (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Desmond’s wife, teaches voice lessons and is trying to dissuade their daughter Connie (Shyrley Rodriguez) from pursuing a life as a model-cum-sex worker.
Elizabeth Rodriguez and Liza Colón-Zayas look to be the prime movers of the project, both getting story credit, and Ms. Rodriguez producing. You’ll know her from Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, and Ms. Colón-Zayas from her role in FX’s The Bear, which won her an Emmy. Daphne Rubin-Vega is famous for her seminal role in Broadway’s Rent and In the Heights.
Allswell in New York also features a powerhouse cast of character actors including Max Casella, Michael Rispoli, and Bobby Cannavale. As well-meaning as the project is, I wish I liked it more than I do. Despite moments of abandon, the script is episodic and intent on leaving issues hanging, as one would for a TV pilot. For as many narrative balls as it puts in the air, none of them achieves a satisfying arc. Still, it has its transcendent moments, like Daisy’s ecstatic dance at her (and sullen Nina’s) baby shower, and Serene’s voice student bursting spontaneously into song. A poignant moment has an orderly closing the door to sick Desmond’s room so his family won’t have to watch a cadaver rolled by on a gurney. These instants give life to Allswell in New York, but they are over too quickly. We’re left with a lingering shot of the family members sitting at a table at the restaurant with very little resolved.
* “Nuyorican” is a mashup of “New York” and “Puerto Rican.”
InFidelity
Directed by Rob Margolies
Faces are familiar in the coyly titled InFidelity as well. The cast is led by Chris Parnell, known for his work in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, SNL, and Rick and Morty. You’ll know him by his voice alone. He was Dr. Spaceman (Spa-chém-in) on NBC’s 30 Rock. Carla Buono has been on The Sopranos and Stranger Things. Basso profundo and towering presence Dennis Haysbert was POTUS on 24. And it’s always good to see Illeana Douglas, from Modern Family, HBO’s Six Feet Under and various Scorsese pictures.
InFidelity is the most formal of the three films reviewed here. It plays like a chamber piece, going from room to room in an upscale West Side apartments, venturing out into the occasional nightclub or art space. Lyle (Parnell) and Holly (Buono) are a couple happily married for thirty years, when Holly gets a terminal medical diagnosis. Though devoted to his wife, Lyle speculates: Shouldn’t she experience being with a man other than him before departing this mortal coil?
Add to that offbeat premise a defiant daughter, a nosy best friend, and a suave soul singer (the likely partner for Holly) and you have an unsteady mix. InFidelity starts provocative but doesn’t really know where its convictions lie. Dialogue is stilted. Bits that are meant to be comical come off as cruel. A blow dealt demolishes not just libido but a livelihood. Too much of InFidelity is too big or too small. As watchable as the cast is, writer/director Rob Margolies sets up situations that feel inauthentic and leave one wincing.
Or Something
Directed by Jeffrey Scotti Schroeder
Or Something is the slightest of the three. It’s essentially a road trip: Olivia and Amir, strangers to each other, end up in hustler Teddy’s apartment to get money they both are owed. Teddy doesn’t have it but claims they can get it from Uptown Mike. So begins a trek by foot and subway to Harlem, essentially told in real time. It takes 90 minutes to get to Harlem, allowing for a lunch break. Or Something is about 90 minutes long.
Newcomers Mary Neely (Olivia) and Kareem Rahma (Amir) have chemistry and try to build empathy for the characters. Ms. Neely looks like a street angel, with enormous eyes and Cupid’s-bow lips; Mr. Rahma has an affable bear demeanor.
Olivia and Amir are not immediately attracted to each other (“You’re not my type,” says Amir. “What is your type?” asks Olivia. “Less spikey. You’re like a puffer fish.”) They soften, of course, and their banter, the heart of Or Something, amounts to musings about trauma, the objectification of women, and cats. Proper terms are corrected: “eating disorder” is mistaken for “eating disability.” Eventually, confidences are shared. They bond over a duet of Third Eye Blind’s “I Want Something Else (Semi-Charmed Life)” at a karaoke bar.
As ambivalent as its title, Or Something is hampered by a flimsy script. Its mise én scene is in so close on its NYC locations, it could’ve been shot on an iPhone. The absence of obstacles makes Olivia and Amir’s journey forgettable. A quest is judged by the difficulty of its completion. Olivia and Amir set out to find Uptown Mike and—spoiler alert—they find Uptown Mike.