If you find yourself trying to watch the currently un-streamable film New York, New York, it’s recommended you take a break every time you can’t stand De Niro anymore. Unfortunately, the troubled nature of this movie’s production—Scorsese’s cocaine addiction and extramartial affair, Minelli’s discomfort with improv, De Niro’s obsessive method acting—seeps into the final product, resulting in a movie so uncomfortable that the fantastic music and brilliant final act is not enough to save it. We try to come to terms with these mixed feelings, along with how this fits into Lucille 2’s backstory, why Damien Chazelle is clearly so influenced by this film, and how much we’re cashing all our chips in on next week’s movie.
