FLIFF SCHEDULES ANOTHER EXCITING LINEUP
Here's a look at a few of the titles at this year's FLIFF, reviewed on a five-star scale.
The Last New Yorker: ****
There's an old-fashioned, romantic charm to "The Last New Yorker," appropriate for a movie about an old-fashioned romantic who feels increasingly displaced in modern society, or at least the modern streets of New York. Aging, long-divorced Lenny Sugarman (Dominic Chianese) spends his retirement days having breakfast with best friend Ruben (Dick Latessa) and kvetching about the wonderful city he grew up in and the shell of its former self they now inhabit. His life changes when his stockbroker nephew (John Hamilton) informs him that he's penniless, the result of a series of ill-advised financial decisions. At the same time, he meets Mimi (Kathleen Chalfant), an elegant lady who steals his heart. Lenny is determined to remain self-sufficient in his twilight years, rejecting his nephew's offer for financial help and instead masquerading as a stockbroker himself. This lament for a lost New York is that rare find in the movie industry: a central, dynamic vehicle for a senior citizen actor.
