Writer/Director Paul Mazursky clearly aims to showcase that special place and time in his own life, in this semi-autobiographical story of a young, would-be actor who leaves his Brooklyn home and moves to Greenwich Village, to live among poets, writers, and other young actors. It's the early 1950s, and Mazursky's alter ego goes by the name of Larry (Lenny Baker), early twenties, earnest, fun loving, romantic, and plagued by an overbearing, intrusive mother named Faye (Shelley Winters).
Larry's friends include several rather eccentric people. But they're all his age, and all have the usual growing-up problems. Talk turns to romance, sex, finding a job, future plans, and so on. The script is rather talky. But in a place like Greenwich Village, where life revolves around people, philosophy, and the arts, what else is there to do but talk?
Though humor permeates the film, it's mostly dark comedy, which masks the underlying emotional pain of the various characters, as they all seem rather lost and forlorn amid such gloomy and dreary physical surroundings. But maybe the drabness of it all provides that sense of nostalgia for Mazursky, that sense of having moved beyond, to a broader, brighter, more expansive vision of life.
The film's cinematography is conventional. Dark interiors match the film's dark, poignant themes. Background music features mostly light jazz, with a little opera thrown in. Casting and acting are fine. But Shelley Winters steals the show with her terrific performance.
Nostalgic in tone and sentiment, "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" offers memories of another time, another place. It's a period-piece setting, a coming-of-age story. It's a film that will appeal to viewers who lived through the 1950s, or who can identify with the bohemian lifestyle that so defines that special place called Greenwich Village.
Larry's friends include several rather eccentric people. But they're all his age, and all have the usual growing-up problems. Talk turns to romance, sex, finding a job, future plans, and so on. The script is rather talky. But in a place like Greenwich Village, where life revolves around people, philosophy, and the arts, what else is there to do but talk?
Though humor permeates the film, it's mostly dark comedy, which masks the underlying emotional pain of the various characters, as they all seem rather lost and forlorn amid such gloomy and dreary physical surroundings. But maybe the drabness of it all provides that sense of nostalgia for Mazursky, that sense of having moved beyond, to a broader, brighter, more expansive vision of life.
The film's cinematography is conventional. Dark interiors match the film's dark, poignant themes. Background music features mostly light jazz, with a little opera thrown in. Casting and acting are fine. But Shelley Winters steals the show with her terrific performance.
Nostalgic in tone and sentiment, "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" offers memories of another time, another place. It's a period-piece setting, a coming-of-age story. It's a film that will appeal to viewers who lived through the 1950s, or who can identify with the bohemian lifestyle that so defines that special place called Greenwich Village.