Product Description

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 01/23/2007 Run time: 125 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16627 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2005-07-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Customer Reviews

The Artist's Life of the '80s
I have to admit. This is the movie that made me want to drop everything and move to NYC to become an artist/writer/hat designer/club kid. Of course, I was 16 when I first saw it and wasn't going to be leaving my Colorado suburban abode anytime soon. But it still inspired me to one day visit NYC and run into the same characters in this movie. Not only is the story entertaining, but the movie style is indeed unique.

My only request: PLEASE MAKE THIS AVAILABLE ON DVD!
I would love to see bonus DVD material including a documentary on NYC in the '80s and commentary with the director and Bernadette Peters. Maybe Criterion will take this one on.

Either way, this flick is a gem.

Bad decisions all around
Hopelessly stiff in some parts, and unfunny in others, "Slaves of New York" doesn't have any center. James Ivory was perhaps a poor choice as a director; there is a restrained quality to the movie and nothing seems spontaneous. Ivory seemed to be trying for his own Altmanesque collage; the truth is, Altman should have been the one to direct this in the first place.

The casting isn't much better: Bernadette Peters does what she can with the role of Eleanor but she's too old for the part. Mercedes Ruehl is barely believable as an East Village bohemian; she looks as though she's playacting. Adam Coleman Howard is more whiny than anything as Stash and Nick Corri's character, while likeable, lacks the bite of the character in the original stories.

The one scene that really stands out is the three cross dressers lip synching to the Supremes' "Love is Like an Itchin' in my Heart" on the street at 6 a.m. That's a fantastic moment and one that really gives the movie any life, and will perhaps be the ticket to the movie not being forgotten entirely.

The extras are bittersweet. The late Ismail Merchant is interviewed, looking fit and healthy, and an unsmiling Tama Janowitz discusses the transition from book to film. Bernadette Peters looks exactly the same as she always has.

Slaves To Art
Big hair, loud colours, 80's music, and funky hats. Slaves To New York captures the essence of the eighties in a New York party circuit kind of way. I marveled more at the clothes and the hair, and turned a deaf ear at the soap opera that was unravelling before my eyes. Watching all those artists play bed tag with eachother didn't seem to phase me. It's all so passe in the art world.

I loved Bernadette Peters and her constant array of feathered and bowed hats, and the film did supply some awe inspiring shots of New York city skyline. Steve Buscemi provides a cameo as a fashion designer, that was kind of interesting. But like i said before, the hats took center stage in this spectacle. Along with Bernadette Peter's bravado, Slaves of New York is a slice of 80's big apple pie.