A beautifully rendered, stylish time-capsule of early 1980s' New York City in which the specificity of the culture and the spatiality of the terrain shines through in every frame. Amos Poe's Alphabet City deploys a lean narrative centered around a mid-level hood in Tony to elucidate its central theme related to gentrification and the diaspora caused by capital's elevated status among the societal hierarchy. Tony's plight is highly allegoric to this specific temporal of New York City, a character stuck between two worlds - his community/home and the desires of his boss, who is symbolic of big business which aims to disrupt communities due to surging land value. In the end, Tony is forced to choose in a sense between his professional and personal lives, and while one could argue the film isn't overtly explicit about its socio-politically commentary, it does delivery a sly tale of class consciousness through its heroes journey. Alphabet City's film aesthetic and grammar is rooted in dynamism, the quick-cut editing along with the expressive lighting inject such visceral energy into this lo-fi picture that it really feels larger than life. Outside of Abel Ferrara, I'm not sure another filmmaker has documented NYC of this era with such an assured gaze.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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