Seeking out the

5000 greatest films

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Slaves of New York


Directed by James Ivory
Produced by Ismail Merchant and Gary Hendler
Screenplay by Tama Janowitz Based on the short stories by Tama Janowitz
With: Bernadette Peters, Chris Sarandon, Mary Beth Hurt, Madeleine Potter, Adam Coleman Howard, Jsu Garcia, Charles McCaughan, John Harkins, Mercedes Ruehl, Steve Buscemi, Michael Schoeffling, Mark Boone Junior, Tammy Grimes, Anthony LaPaglia, Stanley Tucci, Ismail Merchant, and Tama Janowitz
Cinematography: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Editing: Katherine Wenning
Music: Richard Robbins
Runtime: 124 min
Release Date: 17 March 1989
Aspect Ratio: 1.78 : 1
Color: Color
Twitter Capsule:
The interminable, directionless, non-adventures of hip, struggling artists living in downtown NYC during the '80s. Not even the wonderful Bernadette Peters can make us care about the shallow banalities of these individuals; their meaningless careers, dysfunctional love lives, and silly outfits. The most ill-conceived Merchant Ivory production ever. Watch the infinitely superior Desperately Seeking Susan three times immediately after seeing this to remove any trace of Tama Janowitz’s characters from your mind.