Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

New York Stories Blu-ray Movie Review

Three legendary filmmakers, one movie.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 3, 2012

It doesn't get much better than Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, or Francis Ford Coppola, unless one can collect them all under one roof, or perhaps better said under one banner and within one movie. New York Stories combines the short works of each director into a two-hour trifecta of moviemaking goodness, the directors coming together to tell three unrelated stories set in modern New York. One the tale of a child getting by in the big city on money and culture and cool, one the story of a lost adult whose inner mind is outwardly expressed on the artist's canvas, and the last about a man lost underneath his smothering mother, the films merely offer compact glimpses into interesting lives within the city limits, which could be any city limits, but then again it couldn't be a Woody Allen movie if New York weren't in some way prominent in the final product. Each short film within New York Stories feels complete, though certainly the bookend Marty and Woody movies will leave audiences wanting something longer; they're fine as-is but the storytelling is such that audiences will wish for more of the tale from these little corners of the Big Apple. Coppola's film plays with an intriguing dynamic but never really takes it anywhere, but it's a good interlude between two of the finer short films ever made.

There she goes again.

Life Lessons
Score: 4/5

New York artist Lionel Dobie (Nick Nolte) has found success in his field. Indeed, he's a success on the canvas and off, his work finding its way into shows and into the hearts of all who see his creations. He owns his own studio and seems to have everything a man could want -- everything except for someone special in his life. Former girlfriend and current pupil Paulette (Rosanna Arquette) has come back to town, hoping to continue her artistic studies but wanting to put her physical relationship with Lionel behind her. But he's something of the jealous kind. He yearns for her affections in the bedroom and she wants his approval in the studio. Paulette sees other people -- a slick-haired artist (Jesse Borrego) and an underground performance artist (Steve Buscemi). But Lionel's grasp is tight and he's not about to let her go. Can he finish his current work in time for his next exhibition, and more importantly, can he settle his soul and fill the void left by a distant Paulette?

The first film of the three and the second-best amongst them, Martin Scorsese's Life Lessons offers a fascinating parallel between a confused and muddled mind and a confused and muddled canvas. For lead character Lionel Dobie, internal struggle and jumbled thinking yields equally messy results on the canvas. But there's nevertheless an order to the madness, a direction that takes shape and comes to fruition over time, even if the evidence of a scattered, uncertain, in-progress shape remains always visible both under the surface and above it, whether speaking of the man or his artwork. As he seems to do with his life, Lionel steps back from the canvas only long enough to analyze a spot and rushes in to fill it with whatever his mind wants, whatever his inner eye sees. So too is his life with women, and it's the film's closing shots that bring the arc full circle, where the audience finally comes to understand what it is that drives Lionel the man and Lionel the artist. The performances are excellent; Nolte fully immerses himself into the world and mind of the troubled artist, and Rosanna Arquette's always in-motion effort to escape his haphazardness sells the plot. Scorsese's direction is faultless; the movie is well crafted but the story rightly takes center stage, the visuals only supporting rather than telling.

Life Without Zoë
Score: 2.5/5

Young Zoë (Heather McComb) lives in a broken home, but she's so well off that it doesn't effect her quite as it might a more normal child. She lives in a New York high-rise apartment where she's waited on by her live-in butler Hector (Don Novello) who makes sure she's properly dressed, fed, and awake in time to catch the bus to school. Zoe's father Claudio (Giancarlo Giannini) plays the flute and her mother Charlotte (Talia Shire) is a well-to-do socialite with a love of travel. When Zoë comes home and finds herself in the middle of a robbery -- men are knocking off the apartment building's safety deposit boxes -- one of the culprits drops the contents of her father's box. She retrieves it and finds inside a priceless jewel which once belonged to one Princess Soroya (Carole Bouquet); Zoë sets out to return it. In the meantime, she hopes to reunite her estranged parents.

Life Without Zoë might be a fun movie upon which to gaze, but its plot and structure are a little too scattered to make it something of much dramatic relevance or of any kind of traditional entertainment value. To be sure, Director Francis Ford Coppola's picture paints some interesting characters, develops some intriguing situations, and is crafted with care, but the movie seems a little too playful and unfocused, sacrificing story for energy, deeper characterization for a superficial beat. It's difficult to pinpoint the purpose beyond what appears to be merely a snapshot of young Zoë's unique life as a young aristocrat and socialite attempting to act thrice her age in what she wears, how she speaks, and the company she keeps. It's an interesting dynamic, to watch a budding, somewhat spoiled person of this sort at a young age; the movie almost feels like one of those parent-child switch-a-roo films where the elder mind inhabits the younger body and vice-versa, except here there's no child in an adult's body to bring balance to the tale. Yet despite its haphazard plot, it's a fun little watch and a nice sandwich short between New York Stories' superior bookends.

Oedipus Wrecks
Score: 4.5/5

Middle-aged and single New York lawyer Sheldon Mills (Woody Allen) has a problem. It's a big problem, really, and it's about to become a really, really BIG problem. That problem is his overbearing mother Sadie Millstein (Mae Questel), a seemingly lovely old lady who overwhelms her son's life, butting in and embarrassing him at every turn. Things have gone so badly that Sheldon's in therapy, and if he thought he had it bad now, he'll be downright suicidal -- at one point he claims that death might be his only option for sorting out his life -- when things go from bad to much, much worse. His mother rejects his fiancé, a divorcée named Lisa (Mia Farrow) who's supporting three kids and works a part-time job. A dinner date goes bad, and a trip to a magic show with the entire group in tow goes even worse -- until Sadie is chosen to participate in an on-stage trick and vanishes before everyone's eyes, surprising even the magician and his assistant. Suddenly, and after the initial panic has subsided and reality has set in, Sheldon finds himself a free man. His life -- life at work, life in the bedroom -- has never been better. But when his mother returns -- in quite the unexpected manner -- his brief flirtation with freedom is replaced by an overwhelming darkness that hangs in the sky like an ever-present, ominous cloud. As a last resort, he turns to a psychic, Treva (Julie Kavner), to sort things out between himself and his mother once and for all.

When Sheldon's mother is placed in the magician's box and swords begin piercing the enclosure, the character's reaction is one of the most subtle, smirky, morbidly satisfied looks audiences will ever see. Relief, pleasure, all sorts of emotions run through Allen's eyes, and it's as if the character is himself shoving the bladed weapons into the box, finishing off his mother and finally finding the inner and outer peace for which he so longs. The joyfully funny Oedipus Wrecks is classic Woody Allen, a fine character study that creates very real people and very real emotions even as it crosses the ridiculous with the absurd. It lacks logic but makes up for that shortcoming with fine performances and the shaping of the plot into what is a living nightmare, what would be Sheldon's personal take on the old "naked in front of the school" dream, his mother's overbearing ways ascended to such heights that she's not merely inescapable, but capable of embarrassing him and smothering him in front of, well, in front of everybody. Allen's film is indeed a nightmare in the guise of a Comedy, the picture quite dramatically involved but carrying a heavy burden, dark themes, and a complex problem on a light and breezy footing. No explanation is really provided for what happens in the movie, but the how is far less important than the why. Maybe it's divine intervention, fate, some unexplainable means of guiding one along the right path, but whatever it is, it plays with ideas of destiny, or a purpose for the absurd, of the importance of tolerating family and, sometimes, maybe, slowing down to take a listen to the elderly and the more experienced. Allen is wonderful, as he always is, and Mae Questel plays mother Sadie much the same way she plays her character in Christmas Vacation, shaping an off-the-wall, chatty, not quite as senile, but equally obnoxious character, said, of course, with all the affection in the world for the quality of the performance.

New York Stories Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek Home Entertainment brings New York Stories to Blu-ray with a satisfying 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. The image captures some very nice details throughout, the transfer retaining a quality, mostly film-like appearance thanks to natural stability and light grain retention. Whether Lionel's paint-stained button-down shirt, his brushes and mixed-up paints, city exterior textures, facial lines, or general frame objects in all three films, the image yields a stable, true, crisp, well-defined, and clear presentation that suits all three pictures well. Colors are nicely balanced and accurate, perhaps a hair dim in places but pleasing nonetheless. The outdoor scenes in Zoë are noticeably splendid, as is a restaurant exterior in Wrecks, the latter showing some nice yellow flowers and green leaves and stems. Banding, blocking, print wear, edge halos, all are of little to no concern. In general, this is a fine, pleasant transfer from Mill Creek.

New York Stories Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

New York Stories tells its tales via a spotty but sufficient DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Things can be a little mushy, and it's evident early on that the track won't yield the greatest clarity, whether focused elements or meant-to-be-slightly-harsh background music played through Lionel's studio sound system at incredibly high volume. The track finds a few spurts of energy and satisfying immersion; a plane rumbles through the front early in the first film, and Steve Buscemi's character's monologue bounces around the front speakers nicely enough. There's also good, positive heft to the opening song in the Zoë feature. The Allen film is almost all dialogue and light supportive elements, both handled smoothly and efficiently. This is a fairly bland, no-frills sort of listen, but Mill Creek's lossless soundtrack presents and plays the films' limited elements well enough.

New York Stories Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All that's included is the New York Stories theatrical trailer (480p, 3:13).

New York Stories Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

New York Stories will likely leave audiences wanting more, particularly out of Woody Allen. Fortunately, there's a rather large assemblage of works from all three of these fine directors to devour, but for audiences looking for a brief introduction to each, this is a great place to start. The Allen film in particular just oozes "Woody" through and through; it's an absolute must-see for admirers of his works. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of New York Stories offers fair video and audio. A trailer makes up the entirety of the supplements. But despite a mediocre Blu-ray presentation, the opportunity to own Allen, Scorsese, and Coppola for about $2-$3 each is impossible to resist. Highly recommended.