The Safdie brothers name the greatest New York movies of all time
In the last decade or so, the works of many new auteurs have become important parts of the current discourse around contemporary cinema, but very few of them have managed to match the impact that the Safdie brothers have had. Through strangely riveting thrillers such as Good Time and Uncut Gems, the Safdies have injected some much-needed life into modern genre filmmaking and changed the landscape of American cinema.
From an early age, the Safdies were completely mesmerised by the cinematic medium because their father was a huge film buff. In addition to encouraging them to make short movies, their father also introduced them to a wide range of movies, sometimes using the works of actors like Dustin Hoffman to convey moral lessons about their own lives. As a result, cinema was always a huge part of their consciousness – both artistic and sociopolitical.
During a conversation with Interview Magazine, Benny Safdie reflected on his relationship with New York City: “As soon I got out of Boston, I came back to New York, to an apartment in Chinatown. I don’t know what possessed me to take that place. They said it was 100 square feet. It was probably 80 square feet. Then my wife graduated from BU and came to live with me in that apartment, and that was the test, the two of us living in, basically, a closet. It was like, ‘If we can make it here, we can make it go anywhere.'”
New York City also played a vital part in shaping their artistic identities since they spent their time either with their father in Queens or with their mom in Manhattan. Their unique vision of the city is evident in most of their work, including the critically acclaimed 2019 thriller Uncut Gems, which is one of the most fascinating 21st-century portrayals of New York. Starring Adam Sandler as a neurotic gambling addict, the movie solidified their status as serious auteurs.
“Recreating a New York City Street isn’t just slapping on a New Your City ambience. It’s cars, it’s a baby crying, it’s construction, it’s a siren, it’s a freeway in the background. You layer them together, you add dialogue, and then you add music,” Benny Safdie said while talking about how to make a New York movie. “If you listen to the score in Gems, there’s maybe three cues that are frenetic,” Josh added. ”A lot of the other ones are flutes and Mellotrons and meditation balls.”
During an appearance on Adventures in Moviegoing, the brothers were asked to name their favourite New York movies of all time, and their list, which has been collated on Letterboxd, does not disappoint at all. Ranging from the bizarre surrealism of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours to the grotesque societal decadence of Larry Clark’s Kids, this selection is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to explore the city through cinema.
Check out the full list below.
Safdie brothers’ favourite New York movies:
- Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
- Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)
- Nine 1/2 Weeks (Adrian Lyne, 1986)
- Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979)
- Kids (Larry Clark, 1995)
- The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971)
- Death Wish (Michael Winner, 1974)
- Across 110th Street (Barry Shear, 1972)
- Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
- Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 1984)
- Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)
- King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)
- Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980)
- The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
- Juice (Ernest R. Dickerson, 1992)
- The Lords of Flatbush (Martin Davidson and Stephen Verona, 1974)
- Gloria (John Cassavetes, 1980)
- After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
- Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
- On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956)
- Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack, 1975)
- Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982)
- Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
- Angelo My Love (Robert Duvall, 1983)
- King of the Gypsies (Frank Pierson, 1978)
- The Incident (Larry Peerce, 1967)
- Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
- Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1958)
- The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1961)
- Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
- David Holzman’s Diary (Jim McBride, 1967)
- GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
- The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979)
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961)
- The Children of Times Square (Curtis Hanson, 1986)
- Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)
- The Landlord (Hal Ashby, 1970)
- Little Murders (Alan Arkin, 1971)
- Fingers (James Toback, 1978)
- They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich, 1981)
- Downtown ’81 (Edo Bertoglio, 2000)
- The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman, 1979)
- Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)
- Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
- Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)
- Paid in Full (Charles Stone III, 2002)
- Cops and Robbers (Aram Avakian, 1973)
- The Super Cops (Gordon Parks, 1974)
- The Hot Rock (Peter Yates, 1972)
- Basquiat (Julian Schnabel, 1996)
