Countless people throughout the years have looked to New York City as their inspiration and their dream city, their idealized urban center. It certainly has been home to and an incubator for various types of arts and media. There have been many films, TV shows, podcasts, songs, and pieces of artwork and photography that have been made about New York City, and the city has shown its influence in a myriad of ways.
It is a bit curious to title a film NYC Dreams but here it is, an independently made film about a young man, with a troubled background, who wants to make it as a dancer in New York City. Theo, the protagonist, spends much of his waking life in a series of daydreams and reminisces, and they often touch upon New York City.
This film is intriguing and mysterious, but also confusing and disjointed, and disturbing. It is essentially a character study of a young man, Theo, who is a naturally talented dancer but is beset heavily by various problems, rejections, a fraught childhood, and a disjointed present.
There are people looking after him, people who care for him (a dance company leader, his father’s girlfriend, his former foster parents, etc.) but he is out of touch with himself. He has experienced so much pain and rejection that he dissociates frequently. He is poor, gay, and a loner who has people reaching out to him, yet he has great difficulty moving forward.
The movie shows how he is constantly shuttling back and forth between past memories and daydreams, and currently trying to stay very chill and blank. We viewers wonder how someone with his troubles will be able to make the leap forward.
While this is often interesting, it is also frustrating to watch at times. The frequent back-and-forth may illustrate Theo’s sense of reality, but watching it as a moviegoer is akin to whiplash. The moody feel is accentuated by the color of the film, from natural to hazy pastels and other screens.
New York City, especially Brooklyn, is on display here and is at measures enticing and dreamy, harsh and fragmented, flat and dull. Among the sights of Brooklyn shown here are the Brooklyn Museum, the DUMBO waterfront, and Prospect Park; in Manhattan, we see Times Square and Washington Square Park. In Queens, we see Theo walking near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The locations are at times integral to his being, at other times incidental. But it is often an attractive aspect of the film.
The cast does a very good job with their parts. We feel pity and curiosity for Theo, who is also pushing away his friends (and us). We feel for the efforts, at times heroic, made by the people who care for him. We ponder the roles of his dates (found on dating apps) and his coffee shop employer, who is sympathetic toward him but to a limit.
One of the best aspects of NYC Dreams is the dancing. A mix of modern dance, freestyle, voguing, and martial arts moves, some of it is quite beautiful. Some of the songs (especially the celestial-sounding round) are haunting and pretty, others brittle and pained.
NYC Dreams is very much an indie film that is paced irregularly, with a few inspirational moments of dialogue delivered by key female characters.
This is a film for adults, and there are sexual situations, minor violent episodes, and some tough language. But much of it is just heavy in feel, not a kid’s movie by any stretch. At times it felt like a very extended music video.
Social workers, youth therapists, and LGBTQ+ workers would all be interested in watching it and posing questions about how to deal with someone like this. A typical viewer needs to be a patient and adventurous filmgoer to appreciate this quirky slice-of-life film.
Parts of the film could be shown to great effect, for particular subjects and aspects. There are lengthy segments, especially a duet section toward the end, of modern dance that are enjoyable. Fans of the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight may enjoy this, which is in a similar realm.