Pairing director James Ivory (Maurice, Room With a View) together with Tama Janowitz's novel of 80s New York artists would seem to be roughly on the order of having Daffy Duck play Hamlet. The natural chemistry just doesn't seem to be there. But Ivory not only manages to pull it off, he revs up his cinematic style to match the fast-talking screenplay beat for beat. Bernadette Peters turns in an excellent performance as Eleanor, an insecure would-be hat designer, who's living with a brat artist named Stash. Stash's idea of art is to trace video stills of cartoon characters, such as Dudley Dooright. The whole New York art gallery social milieu comes under the critical scrutiny of the camera's eye as ruthless climbers and naive waifs step and are stepped on as everyone struggles for that one moment in the spotlight. In addition to the fine acting that Ivory evokes from his team of character actors, the film uses split-screen photography and a wide range of inventive editing techniques to mimic the glossy sheen which covers the lives of these mostly shallow losers in the fast lane. Recommended. (R. Pitman)
Slaves of New York
(1989) 125 min. PG-13. $89.95. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. Library Journal
Slaves of New York
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