Comingsoon.net is headed up east to determine which New York-set movies are the very best. Check out our picks in the gallery below!
Ah, New York. New York City. The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps. The background for countless dramas, comedies, action films, and every other genre imaginable. Plenty of directors who shoot in the city try to claim that it’s just as much a character in their films as the lead actors are, which makes NYC the greatest performer in the history of the medium.
Movies set in New York are undeniably in a league of their own. Several decades ago, the city was incredibly dangerous. Now, the city is viewed as a place where love happens. It’s a baffling turn, but the movie industry’s responsible for these images and the drastic change that happened sometime in the late 80s and early 90s. No matter if it’s being portrayed as a hell or a utopia, New York movies are simply unbeatable.
New York movies
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Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing just celebrated its 30th anniversary this summer. It’s a heated, politically-charged portrait of a New York unknown by anyone not from Brooklyn, but its tense subject matter is certainly recognizable by anyone who lives in America.
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Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
The Coen Brothers are responsible for some of the most loving portraits of Midwest living, but their 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis does something similar for the folk scene in 1960s New York (specifically historic Greenwich Village). Starring Oscar Isaac, the film’s cold and lonely portrayal of one of the biggest cities in the world can’t be missed.
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Mean Streets (1973)
Before Martin Scorsese was a household name, he was carving out a place for himself in the film industry with a series of incredibly unique visions of the New York he knew. Mean Streets is one such example, and it’s one of his very best films, too.
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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The oldest film on the list, Midnight Cowboy doubles as a touching film about friendship (despite being a movie about two really seedy guys in an equally seedy city). Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight are unbeatable here, as is the film’s vision of a changing New York.
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Serpico (1973)
Released the same year as Mean Streets, Serpico is a biopic about the undercover NYPD officer who tried to uncover the corruption within the city’s police department starring Al Pacino in the titular role. Like Scorsese’s films, this really managed to show the world what New York in the 70s was actually like.
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Shaft (1971)
Forget Shaft’s 2019 remake-sequel—these films owe it all to the exquisite first entry in the Shaft franchise, released back in 1971. A beloved pillar of the Blaxploiation genre, Shaft is a New York movie for the ages.
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Taxi Driver (1976)
Martin Scorsese helped shape the way New York was seen back in the 70s. One of several masterpieces the director has made, Taxi Driver might be the seminal “bad New York” movie.
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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Not to be confused with the (pretty good) Tony Scott remake from the late 2000s, Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw’s 1970s action thriller sees an NYPD officer as he tries to stop terrorists from killing a subway car full of hostages. Not only is it an integral part of the action thriller canon, it’s a key component of the 70s New York aesthetic.
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West Side Story (1961)
Essentially a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, 1961’s West Side Story remains one of the all-time best musicals and New York films. As the title suggests, the movie takes place in New York’s west side and follows two rival gangs in the 1950s. Steven Spielberg’s remake will certainly be something to see, but it’ll be hard to beat this one for sure.
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When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
After all these dark, dirty films about the Big Apple, it was incredibly refreshing when Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally… completely changed the way the city was seen by the rest of the country (and the world). An unconventional love story in an unconventional city, When Harry Met Sally… is as important for New York (and film history) as Taxi Driver.
