Dirty Old Town

Filmmakers Jenner Furst and Daniel B. Levin co-directed and co-wrote (with Julia Willoughby Nason) this indie drama, which was reportedly filmed in two days on a $10,000 budget. Lower Manhattan antiques shop owner Bill (played by Billy Leroy, owner of New York's famous Billy's Antiques and Props) has 72 hours to gather the funds to pay his rent, or else he'll be evicted. Bill's efforts to gather money leads him into encounters with a borderline-psychotic cop, an impossibly glamorous young drug addict, and a seemingly endless parade of over-the-top extroverts who appear to have been recruited by an open casting call seeking “colorful New York street characters.” Dirty Old Town occasionally tries to whine about the gentrification of lower Manhattan, but it fails to make a cogent case against change. In lieu of coherent storytelling and real acting, the filmmakers pack their production with sequences that suggest this New York neighborhood is the epicenter of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n' roll. Unfortunately, the film is too disorganized to convincingly celebrate its seedy surroundings. Not recommended. (P. Hall)