King of New York

As the kids say, this movie is a vibe. 

Another movie in my endless to be watched file and I finally pulled the trigger.

With modern movies we know so much because if you are online or on film Twitter or whatever tons of it gets thrown at you whether you care or not.

My wife gets frustrated because I know specific details about shows or movies I have never seen.

“How?!” Is a frequent refrain in my house.

The answer is I read a lot of nonsense. I have no plans to watch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice anytime soon. I may never watch the Joker sequel. But I can tell you everything you could want to know about those flicks. Even though I do not wish to know, you know?

But with older movies, they can still be a surprise.

And this was a blast.

I had not paid attention to the director of King of New York but as the credits rolled I slipped over to IMDB and everything clicked. 

Abel Ferrara, the guy who directed Bad Lieutenant, directed this. If Sidney Lumet directed NC-17 movies this is what they would be like. 

I found it really interesting that the best scenes are just Walken and the group hanging out and partying. There is some semblance of a plot but it doesn’t have a story in the traditional sense. 

Walken’s crew kills some various enemy gangs, then a frustrated bunch of (spoiler) retaliates and then there is a thrilling climax. 

I enjoyed it all the way through but I locked in for the final 30 minutes or so when the movie entered its endgame. 

Again, I think it’s fascinating that the story in this movie is bare bones but the style overcomes it all. 

I am not generally a style guy. I don’t care how many cool Spielberg shots you show me from Crystal Skull that is still a bad movie. 

But here, the dialogue and plot might be thin but the cool vibes never stop. 

Probably doesn’t hurt that Walken is a magnetic, charming arch criminal and that everyone else is giving career best performances. 

I mean this is a movie that launches Wesley Snipes, Laurence Fishburne and David Caruso. Hard to argue with the casting department on those results.

I can’t speak to the rest of Ferrara’s filmography but you can see why this and Bad Lieutenant became towering influences on the last three decades of filmmaking.