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Sidewalks of New York
Paramount // R // May 21, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
With "She's The One" and "The Brothers McMullen", Ed Burns has always seemed to have a desire to be the Woody Allen of a new generation ("Sidewalks" seems like Burns's version of Allen's "Husbands and Wives"). Although "She's" was too feather-light to be memorable and its follow-up, "No Looking Back" was too moody, Burns has come up with his most accomplished and entertaining effort to date. It's not without some rough spots around the edges, but it's an otherwise intelligent and often quite funny picture that does a fine job exploring issues regarding sex, love, marriage and commitment without getting too heavy-handed or preachy.
The film stars Burns (back in fine, mildly sarcastic acting form) as Tommy, a producer on an Entertainment talk show (what I believe is a little shot at Burns's previous employment before he made "McMullen") who really would be happier writing. Tommy's just been kicked out of the house where he's been living with his girlfriend, so he moves in with his co-worker (Dennis Farina, in an extremely amusing performance), who gives him his advice about relationships.
Tommy stops by the video store to catch up on a movie for work and runs into Maria (Rosario Dawson of "Josie and the Pussycats"). They meet-cute over a movie that both of them need and it develops into what looks to be a pretty nice relationship. The only problem is that her ex-husband Ben (David Krumholtz of "Slums of Beverly Hills") still hangs out around her house in-between discussing and dreaming about his future as a musician. Waiting in a cafe one day, he catches the eye of a waitress named Ashley (a wonderfully tipsy and giggly performance from Brittany Murphy) who's involved with...Griffin (Stanley Tucci), who's currently married to Annie (Heather Graham). Last, but not least, Annie finds herself showing an apartment to Tommy. You get the idea, as many characters meet up with one another and find themselves linked.
But, aside from a few minor exceptions, the characters are very nicely realized and more importantly, feel real. The actors dial down their actorly touches, Burns keeps locations and costumes minimal and his usual cinematographer Frank Prinzi does a nice job launching the audience into the coversations in a handheld fashion that doesn't get too jarring, nor do the jumpcuts and other editing tricks that come into play. The on-the-street interviews with the characters that happen on occasion throughout the movie originally met with a negative reaction, but I warmed up to them as Burns often made wonderful use of them to push the story forward.
Burns also takes the arc into the film's more dramatic second half well, as he keeps events nicely peppered with the occasional touches of comedic relief. Speaking of comedic, Burns is one of the few directors aside from Kevin Smith who really have a fine idea how to use cursing. Although "Sidewalks" does certainly go into "R" rated territory, the dialogue's snappy and never tiring. Obviously, Burns must have had to have things locked down well in order to finish filming a picture that looks this technically professional in only a matter of 16 days.
All things considered, Burns really hasn't brought anything extrodinarily new to the table, but he's done an exceptionally good job in nearly every area of the presentation of the rather tired romantic comedy genre. He's made characters that we can care about and see as believable people who do and say things that don't seem cliched and brought enough wit and intelligence to the screenplay to make us laugh and care.I felt the film's wrap is a little too neat, but it doesn't entirely strain believability.
Although I'd thought that Burns would be treading over the same ground once again with "Sidewalks", he's ended up making not only one of the more entertaining films I've seen in 2001, but his smartest and sharpest effort to date.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Sidewalks of New York" is presented by Paramount in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film is a low-budget picture, shot in 35mm with a lot of handheld camerawork and often using only available light. Given that fact, its surprising - and a credit to Burns and cinematographer Frank Prinzi that the picture looks as warm and crisp as it does. When I saw an early screening of the film a few weeks before the release, the print generally looked very good. Although the DVD transfer isn't flawless, it did boast slightly better image quality than the screening seemed to have. The picture often has very pleasant sharpness - the brighter outdoor sequences are crisp and well-defined, while some of the dimmer, interior scenes are crisp, but slightly softer in comparison. The picture seemed to have more depth and detail than when I saw it theatrically.
Flaws were minor and infrequent. The print used remained in terrific condition throughout, with only a few tiny specks during the entire film and occasional, minimal grain. A couple of little instances of pixelation were spotted, but no edge enhancement was seen. The few problems that I saw throughout were noticable, but certainly not very distracting.
The film's color palette is visually appealing and well-rendered on this presentation. The attractive, crisp colors of the city looked natural and crisp here, with no smearing or other flaws. Overall, quite a nice effort from Paramount.
SOUND: "Sidewalks of New York" is presented only in Dolby 2.0. While some may be dissapointed that a new film like this one isn't in 5.1, the budget of the production may have kept the film from producing a bigger sound production. Still, the dialogue-driven 2.0 soundtrack still is satisfactory. Dialogue is mostly clear and easily understood, although I felt as if I needed to turn up the volume a bit more than usual.
MENUS: Static menus with no animation, but nice film-themed backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Director Burns has offered audio commentaries for all of his films thus far and all three of his prior tracks have been superb, offering entertaining stories and a ton of details about the production of his films. Total future filmmaker tracks, students would likely learn a lot about low-budget filmmaking from these commentaries. After I found out that Burns filmed "Sidewalks" in a matter of 17 days, I really wanted a commentary to hear how he accomplished the picture that quickly. Thankfully, Paramount has provided both a commentary and documentary.
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Ed Burns who, as with prior tracks, has no problem filling up the majority of the running time with informative comments. Burns goes into terrific detail about how he was able to quickly film and find locations that would allow him to film for little money. There's a few good on-set stories and some entertaining chat about the production, as well. Definitely worth listening to; after listening, I'd felt as if I'd been there during filming.
Anatomy of a Scene: This is one of the Sundance Channel documentaries that have been popping up on DVDs from different studios ("Anniversary Party", "Deep End"). The "Anatomy of a Scene" documentaries offer more than they describe; while they do focus on one scene, they take a look at the entire arc of the film, from the ideas behind the creation of story and characters to pre-production, production of the film and final, overall thoughts on the project. Here, we are offered interviews with Burns, actress Dawson, the cinematographer, producer, production manager, location manager and others, who discuss characters, story and how the film was able to shoot on such a low-budget. There are detailed discussions of the small crew, as well as a few moments where we're shown the cast/crew at work. Crisply edited, informative and highly enjoyable, I wish all "making of" documentaries could be like these. The documentary is 20 minutes long.
Final Thoughts: "Sidewalks Of New York" is a well-acted and entertaining comedy/drama that remains one of my favorites from 2001. Paramount has provided a very nice DVD, with very good audio/video and two high-quality supplements. Recommended.
With "She's The One" and "The Brothers McMullen", Ed Burns has always seemed to have a desire to be the Woody Allen of a new generation ("Sidewalks" seems like Burns's version of Allen's "Husbands and Wives"). Although "She's" was too feather-light to be memorable and its follow-up, "No Looking Back" was too moody, Burns has come up with his most accomplished and entertaining effort to date. It's not without some rough spots around the edges, but it's an otherwise intelligent and often quite funny picture that does a fine job exploring issues regarding sex, love, marriage and commitment without getting too heavy-handed or preachy.
The film stars Burns (back in fine, mildly sarcastic acting form) as Tommy, a producer on an Entertainment talk show (what I believe is a little shot at Burns's previous employment before he made "McMullen") who really would be happier writing. Tommy's just been kicked out of the house where he's been living with his girlfriend, so he moves in with his co-worker (Dennis Farina, in an extremely amusing performance), who gives him his advice about relationships.
Tommy stops by the video store to catch up on a movie for work and runs into Maria (Rosario Dawson of "Josie and the Pussycats"). They meet-cute over a movie that both of them need and it develops into what looks to be a pretty nice relationship. The only problem is that her ex-husband Ben (David Krumholtz of "Slums of Beverly Hills") still hangs out around her house in-between discussing and dreaming about his future as a musician. Waiting in a cafe one day, he catches the eye of a waitress named Ashley (a wonderfully tipsy and giggly performance from Brittany Murphy) who's involved with...Griffin (Stanley Tucci), who's currently married to Annie (Heather Graham). Last, but not least, Annie finds herself showing an apartment to Tommy. You get the idea, as many characters meet up with one another and find themselves linked.
But, aside from a few minor exceptions, the characters are very nicely realized and more importantly, feel real. The actors dial down their actorly touches, Burns keeps locations and costumes minimal and his usual cinematographer Frank Prinzi does a nice job launching the audience into the coversations in a handheld fashion that doesn't get too jarring, nor do the jumpcuts and other editing tricks that come into play. The on-the-street interviews with the characters that happen on occasion throughout the movie originally met with a negative reaction, but I warmed up to them as Burns often made wonderful use of them to push the story forward.
Burns also takes the arc into the film's more dramatic second half well, as he keeps events nicely peppered with the occasional touches of comedic relief. Speaking of comedic, Burns is one of the few directors aside from Kevin Smith who really have a fine idea how to use cursing. Although "Sidewalks" does certainly go into "R" rated territory, the dialogue's snappy and never tiring. Obviously, Burns must have had to have things locked down well in order to finish filming a picture that looks this technically professional in only a matter of 16 days.
All things considered, Burns really hasn't brought anything extrodinarily new to the table, but he's done an exceptionally good job in nearly every area of the presentation of the rather tired romantic comedy genre. He's made characters that we can care about and see as believable people who do and say things that don't seem cliched and brought enough wit and intelligence to the screenplay to make us laugh and care.I felt the film's wrap is a little too neat, but it doesn't entirely strain believability.
Although I'd thought that Burns would be treading over the same ground once again with "Sidewalks", he's ended up making not only one of the more entertaining films I've seen in 2001, but his smartest and sharpest effort to date.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Sidewalks of New York" is presented by Paramount in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film is a low-budget picture, shot in 35mm with a lot of handheld camerawork and often using only available light. Given that fact, its surprising - and a credit to Burns and cinematographer Frank Prinzi that the picture looks as warm and crisp as it does. When I saw an early screening of the film a few weeks before the release, the print generally looked very good. Although the DVD transfer isn't flawless, it did boast slightly better image quality than the screening seemed to have. The picture often has very pleasant sharpness - the brighter outdoor sequences are crisp and well-defined, while some of the dimmer, interior scenes are crisp, but slightly softer in comparison. The picture seemed to have more depth and detail than when I saw it theatrically.
Flaws were minor and infrequent. The print used remained in terrific condition throughout, with only a few tiny specks during the entire film and occasional, minimal grain. A couple of little instances of pixelation were spotted, but no edge enhancement was seen. The few problems that I saw throughout were noticable, but certainly not very distracting.
The film's color palette is visually appealing and well-rendered on this presentation. The attractive, crisp colors of the city looked natural and crisp here, with no smearing or other flaws. Overall, quite a nice effort from Paramount.
SOUND: "Sidewalks of New York" is presented only in Dolby 2.0. While some may be dissapointed that a new film like this one isn't in 5.1, the budget of the production may have kept the film from producing a bigger sound production. Still, the dialogue-driven 2.0 soundtrack still is satisfactory. Dialogue is mostly clear and easily understood, although I felt as if I needed to turn up the volume a bit more than usual.
MENUS: Static menus with no animation, but nice film-themed backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Director Burns has offered audio commentaries for all of his films thus far and all three of his prior tracks have been superb, offering entertaining stories and a ton of details about the production of his films. Total future filmmaker tracks, students would likely learn a lot about low-budget filmmaking from these commentaries. After I found out that Burns filmed "Sidewalks" in a matter of 17 days, I really wanted a commentary to hear how he accomplished the picture that quickly. Thankfully, Paramount has provided both a commentary and documentary.
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Ed Burns who, as with prior tracks, has no problem filling up the majority of the running time with informative comments. Burns goes into terrific detail about how he was able to quickly film and find locations that would allow him to film for little money. There's a few good on-set stories and some entertaining chat about the production, as well. Definitely worth listening to; after listening, I'd felt as if I'd been there during filming.
Anatomy of a Scene: This is one of the Sundance Channel documentaries that have been popping up on DVDs from different studios ("Anniversary Party", "Deep End"). The "Anatomy of a Scene" documentaries offer more than they describe; while they do focus on one scene, they take a look at the entire arc of the film, from the ideas behind the creation of story and characters to pre-production, production of the film and final, overall thoughts on the project. Here, we are offered interviews with Burns, actress Dawson, the cinematographer, producer, production manager, location manager and others, who discuss characters, story and how the film was able to shoot on such a low-budget. There are detailed discussions of the small crew, as well as a few moments where we're shown the cast/crew at work. Crisply edited, informative and highly enjoyable, I wish all "making of" documentaries could be like these. The documentary is 20 minutes long.
Final Thoughts: "Sidewalks Of New York" is a well-acted and entertaining comedy/drama that remains one of my favorites from 2001. Paramount has provided a very nice DVD, with very good audio/video and two high-quality supplements. Recommended.
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