Apple Pie

I am a cinephile or a film critic. I had seen many so called film cult movies. This had never entered my list and would leave my interest as soon as I put the dot at the end of this long sentence; garbage.

While it's been difficult lately to find existing copies, any fan of Tony Azito will definitely appreciate his starring performance in this film! The first thing that came to my mind when viewing "Apple Pie" was Fellini's "Roma" with the various story-lines, song/dance numbers, theatrical scenes and such. And as mentioned in a previous review, the extended dance number at the end of the film is pretty incredible even by today's standards. Move over, "Slumdog Millionaire"! This film apparently had lots of play when it first came out (film festivals, midnight showings, etc.) years before "Flashdance" and many people felt that the big street dance scene at the end was a bit of a steal from "Apple Pie". Irene Cara (who sang the theme song for "Flashdance") was even one of the dancers in "Apple Pie"! Let's hope this once-forgotten gem makes it to NetFlix soon!

This now 50 year old movie is an example of low budget, high weirdness New York City filmmaking that ended in the early 90s. Tony Azito is the propellant that fuels the various set pieces. Miami Vice fans may recognize Azito as the sinister but soft-spoken drug lord Manolo in a 1988 episode called Mirror Image (Season 4 episode 22). Azito didn't play the role as some raving, violent Mafia coke dealer. He was colder than cold and his spidery physical movements, like Dracula, added to the menace.

Azito was going to continue working in the show, presumably as Manolo, but fate intervened. He was hit by a cab and badly injured, then diagnosed with cancer and HIV. Which killed him.

I recently found a VHS copy of Apple Pie on the net and re-watched it. What a treat. I hadn't seen this film in over 20 years! I first saw it at the Deauville Film Festival in France the same year I saw Nashville and Love and Death there. It was a big hit and got a standing ovation the night I saw it.

The film is a kind of hodge-podge of ideas. It stars Tony Azito (who was a big deal in NY on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He died of AIDS a few years ago). It starts out with him as some sort of gangster who then tells the story (in flashback) of how, when he was a kid, he kidnapped himself and got a ransom from his parents. Then he becomes some kind of nighttime costumed prowler and then he winds up leading a huge dance sequence in the streets of New York (pre-Flashdance) to the music of Darryl Hall and John Oates! It all sounds kind of weird in the re-telling, but once you get the hang of it, it all makes sense. The whole film is a lie made up by the main character (Tony Azito), as a kind of manifestation of his own weirdness. Once you get that none of it is to be taken literally you start to understand it as some kind of fractured New York fairy tale.

This is what independent filmmaking was once all about.

...as I was when this movie came to an end.

How this film has anything less than a 7.5 rating is beyond me. It should be required viewing - especially for anyone in the arts industry.

Every choice made by every person involved - the writer/director, the cinematographers, the costume designers, the actors (most of whom were clearly given creative freedom to move around and adlib) was a perfect choice.

The whole thing is so genuine and authentic that it feels more like witnessing a camera follow real people around during a random day of their lives. You want to know these people and interact with them.

And as for the incredible dance number at the end: it makes "You Cant Stop the Beat" from Hairspray feel more like an 8 year-old's dance recital. If it doesnt have you on your feet, moving and shaking (or at least sitting there with a gigantic, goofy grin on your face), then you may want to check your pulse for signs of life.