5/10
The Only Living Boy in New York (2017)
5 September 2017
Named after the song of the same title by Paul Simon, here is a film that is under the radar and limited in release. With my MoviePass I've been making attempts to see things I normally don't see. I saw that Kate Beckinsale was in it and that of course peaked my interest (as it should for any one really). After watching it I can't say I found it to be great. There are moments but they just fade away into a very average film that struggles to leave an impression.

The film is a bout a young boy in New York who finds out that his father is actually carrying out an affair with a mistress. Once he pursues the mistress he realizes that he himself is attracted to her and they carry out a relationship. Things come to a head, as their relationship starts to effect the lives of the people around him and he must decide what to do. There's much more to it going on but its actually irrelevant because none of it really adds much to the excitement the film should bring.

I can understand why you would need a younger actor like Callum Turner for this role but his awkward gawkiness doesn't really help to cater the relationship between Turner and Beckinsale's character. Jeff Bridges was quite good, as he usually is. The stuff with his character did feel shoehorned in to try to develop a eureka moment and it wasn't really a surprise. The film gets lost in itself trying to sound very profound when in fact there is really little going on here.

Marc Webb and Allan Loab still have a ways to go to really impressive me as creative filmmakers and writers. Its a film where you really struggle to think about anything that made it special. Even for a film with an older mistress who is in multiple affairs, the film had near zero eroticism. Basically, the film fails to establish itself on any fronts and thus is forgettable. No harm done, I didn't have many expectations anyways.

5.5/10
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