Next Stop, Greenwich Village

I'm with the room, this film has been sadly overlooked as it was at the time of it's release (even Mazursky champion Pauline Kael was Luke warm) and deserves to be seen.

I think this sort of autobiographical film had sort of been overdone, so Mazurky's film was lumped in as "one of those." What was missed, I think, was his unsentimental, adult perspective on the time and place, on what it meant to be young and bright. He gives us something of what the beak nick world might have been like, unlike the silly portrayals done AT THE TIME.

Lenny Baker, in his only major lead, is excellent along with the entire cast. Christopher Walken makes an impression without the hamming that would later endear him to so many.

This is a bittersweet film about family, leaving "the nest", friendships, dreams, hope, & finding yourself. A young man from Brooklyn leaves home to become an actor in 1950's Greenwich Village. Lenny Baker is very good as Larry Lapinsky & Ellen Green is wonderful as his girlfriend. The quirky characters & situations around them add an ambiance to this movie that makes you believe it was filmed in the 1950's, & not the 70's, when it was actually made. A lot of attention was paid to detail & it shows. Shelly Winters is loud, obnoxious, funny & convincing as the typical Jewish mother (I love the scene when she shows up at his apartment with a chicken). This movie makes you wish you could jump into the film & sit with these characters, have coffee with them, ride the subway, go to one of Larry's rent parties & experience the progressive, offbeat world of New York's Greenwich Village in the 1950's.

Admittedly I come to this film with a deep prejudice. Though it's set in 1953, it was released in 1976, the same year I moved to Greenwich Village. In fact, much of the movie looks to have been filmed about two blocks west of where I lived for 30 years.

For a young person moving to Greenwich Village, there's something timeless about the experience, as this film shows. Directed by Paul Mazursky, the film stars Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, Ellen Greene, Christopher Walken, Lois Smith, and Dori Brenner. Baker is an aspiring young actor named Larry Lapinsky, who leaves his parents' apartment and his sobbing mother (Winters) to take a place in the Village. There, he gets a day job, a girlfriend (Greene), a group of bizarre friends, and starts acting class. He uses a liquor bottle he finds at the subway as an Oscar and thanks the Academy while he waits for a train; he does impressions of Brando for a cop; he does a scene from Golden Boy for class.

Mazursky has left nothing out, not the overblown egomaniacal young actor (Jeff Goldblum) whom Larry meets at an audition, the bipolar young woman (Smith), the gay friend (Antonio Fargas), the poser who's a chick magnet (Walken), and everybody's friend destined to be unlucky in love (Brenner). It's a madcap, free, painful, and sobering existence.

Baker is wonderful as Larry, anxious to get out and live. He's very likable. Shelley Winters is a riot as the Jussi Bjorling-loving Faye Lapinsky, who keeps dropping in and bringing food while she and her husband are in the neighborhood. At one point, she is so convincing telling Sarah (Greene) that she doesn't care if Sarah has been having sex with Larry, that Sarah admits to it, thus driving Faye into such a state that Sarah claims she lied. Lois Smith is very effective as the neurotic Anita. Dori Brenner does a great job as the caring friend, and Christopher Walken strikes the right balance as the enigmatic, distant Robert.

Highly recommended, and if you've ever lived in Greenwich Village, or tried to be an actor in New York, don't miss it.

What makes the film is the New York energy and the locations - many of which still exist, Village Cigars, Smiler's, the lamp store, Julius' bar, the whole Christopher Street area.

I stumbled on this film on USA last night, about 15 minutes in. It was alternately comedic and touching, with Lenny Baker playing a 20-something (Larry Lapinsky) in Greenwich Village in the '50s. Shelley Winter played his mother, who had a knack for showing up at the most inopportune moments and embarrassing her son. Both of them, along with Mike Kellin as Mr. Lapinsky, give excellent nuanced performances.

The central action of the movie is around Larry's attempts to become an actor, and around his friends in the village. The dialog is generally snappy and both dialog and visuals can be out-loud funny at times. 7/10.

I felt like this is what life must truly have been like in the Village in '53. Everything was in order. I was transported. Special kudos go out to Antonio Fargas, who plays a gay man in a tremendously ballsy portrayal considering his Starsky and Hutch days. Also, to the great chemistry of the cast.

It was sad to see Lenny Baker passed away at such a young age. He was definitely in the Hoffman, Pacino, but funnier mold. He should be remembered.