Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Three tales of love, ambition, and neurosis unfold in the city that never sleeps. In "Life Lessons" (Martin Scorsese), a tormented painter channels heartbreak into his art. In "Life Without Zoë" (Francis Ford Coppola), a precocious 12-year-old navigates privilege and loneliness in a Manhattan hotel. And in "Oedipus Wrecks" (Woody Allen), a man’s domineering mother literally becomes a looming presence over New York.
New York Stories is a fascinating, uneven anthology brought together by three titans of American cinema. Scorsese's 'Life Lessons' is the standout—a visceral, visually intoxicating portrait of artistic obsession with stunning cinematography by Néstor Almendros, set to an iconic rock soundtrack. Allen's 'Oedipus Wrecks' is a sharp, genuinely funny comedic fantasy, one of his most surreally inventive pieces. Coppola's 'Life Without Zoë' is the weak link—a precious, dramatically inert misfire that drags the middle section down. Plotting is inconsistent across segments (the Coppola segment is thin, the Allen segment formulaic beneath its fantastical premise), and the anthology format means no single narrative thread sustains. The film earns its Novelty score as a rare major-director anthology experiment, distinctively conceived and irreducibly New York. Cinematography is genuinely exceptional in Scorsese's segment and solid elsewhere. The endings are anticlimactic across the board—none of the three segments sticks a fully satisfying landing.