New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You is a series of vignettes relating to the Big Apple, each cast with superlative actors and directed by a cornucopia of world renown directors. Some of the same producers also worked on Paris, je t'aime, a similarly themed anthology. Only the Paris tribute told the stories one by one. New York, I Love You overlaps characters throughout the film.
The directors include Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner and Randall Balsmey. A credits sequence beginning the end credit roll identifies who helmed what.
The film washes over you like a warm bath. It's soothing although no one of the episodes sticks out over other episodes. New York, I Love You celebrates the feeling of smoking a cigarette in the night streets of Gotham with a stranger. Or the intensity of riding a cab when the driver wants you to vacate his vehicle. Or maybe the solitude of a lonely woman checking into a luxury hotel. The fact that the various stories enjoy a non-linear flow enhances the chance you'll once again run into a character that sparked initial interest.
Short of taking a trip to New York, this film packages the beat of that city. New York, I Love You unwinds in an exclusive engagement at the Angelika Film Center.