THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE, Stuart Rosenberg 1984

Fresh acting, good vibes and NYC during the 80s

New York during the time said to be the coolest: the 80s. Two Italian-American buddies having trouble finding a job due to their little problem with authority and conformity. For one of them, you could call him the main protagonist, this is crucial because he has a child from an ex-girlfriend to take of and another one growing in the belly of his current girlfriend. The other one, a sort of lovely drag queen, has no such responsibilities which leads to nice good ol´ style conflict driven conversations like:

„Come on, lets watch the sun come out like in the old days.“ — „Listen, I don´t have the time to watch the sun come up… I don´t have the time.“

After some fuss about what it means to grow up they decide to rob a company with the help of an older professional thief also in the desperate need for money. During the robbery a corrupted cop shows up and dies. Everybody will think that they killed him during their discovery of a crime during their crime. That´s when things really starting go get rolling — and that´s when I felt asleep.

Normally I blame the film for falling asleep, at least for 50%, but this time I think it was just me being too sleepy after a long and hot day. The film is great, it´s got flow, style, beauty and love in every sequence and it is actually pretty delightful to see actors perform so fresh and natural that you forget how archetypically constructed the story and the dialogues are after all. They probably had great fun filming it. Good vibes there.