New York movies: The 100 best films set in New York City

From King Kong's spire down to the scummiest subway tunnel, TONY ranks the definitive list of the 100 best New York movies: crime dramas, romantic comedies, documentaries and more.

By David Fear, Stephen Garrett, Joshua Rothkopf, Keith Uhlich and Alison Willmore Tue Jul 3 2012

New York movies: Click to the next image to see our 100 best films set in New York City
New York movies: C.H.U.D. (1984)
New York movies: Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (2006)
New York movies: Black and White (1999)
New York movies: Hi, Mom! (1970)
New York movies: God Told Me To (1976)
New York movies: Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
New York movies: Wolfen (1981)
New York movies: Man Push Cart (2005)
New York movies: Hamlet (2000)
New York movies: Three Days of the Condor (1975)

New York movies: Click to the next image to see our 100 best films set in New York City

Paradise and prison, bustling metropolis and the loneliest place on earth: New York City has a cinematic identity that infuses all walks of life. Even as we write our own narratives in this most famous of locations, we walk alongside fictional characters (and sometimes real ones, too, if we’re lucky).

In selecting the 100 most essential New York movies, we kept the city’s boldness in mind. TONY Film staffers David Fear, Joshua Rothkopf and Keith Uhlich teamed up with movie experts Stephen Garrett and Alison Willmore to gather titles from all genres and eras—the widely known and the obscure—in pursuit of a complete picture of NYC on film.

Our only parameter: The movie had to be set in New York City, not Metropolis (sorry, Superman fans), Oz (ditto, you Wiz diehards), nor anywhere else. Dive in, jostle politely, find your seat or ride standing: Please tell us what we’ve missed. It’s a big town.—Joshua Rothkopf, senior Film writer

100

C.H.U.D. (1984)

More funny than scary, this schlock-horror Z flick articulates a primal NYC fear harbored by anyone who’s ever peered down a sewer grate: Who (or what) is living below? Not the homeless, not alligators, but cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers. As the poster of a shimmering Manhattan skyline warned, “They’re not staying down there, anymore!”—Joshua Rothkopf

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (2006)

An essential New York band plays a landmark NYC venue (MSG) as 50 fans capture the event for posterity; only the Beastie Boys could turn a crowdsourced concert movie into a time capsule, a tour of the city’s musical styles (hip-hop, punk, Latin funk) and a tribute to the power of Gotham’s DIY spirit. RIP, MCA.—David Fear

Buy on Amazon

Black and White (1999)

James Toback’s giddy ensemble drama transforms the city into an urban playground where rich white kids play-act ghetto fabulousness, criminals consort with moguls and Brooke Shields sports dreadlocks. It’s a bold think piece on the malleability of class and race in NYC, spiced with the single most sizzling sex scene ever set in Central Park.—David Fear

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Hi, Mom! (1970)

Brian De Palma’s darker-than-dark comedy stars Robert De Niro as a XXX-rated filmmaker wanna-be who peeps on his neighbors. The no-budget film captures porn-theater-era New York at its seediest; it also features an astonishing sequence satirizing downtown experimental theater, in which a white-bread audience is viciously humiliated (and they love it).—Keith Uhlich

Buy on Amazon

God Told Me To (1976)

Larry Cohen’s sci-fi chiller about a detective investigating murderers who claim to be carrying out God’s will is the surreal B-side to Taxi Driver: a nightmare vision of the city’s repressed rage that starts with cameoing Andy Kaufman gunning down the St. Patrick’s Day parade and ends with our hero becoming what he was trying to stop.—Alison Willmore

Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Stanley Kubrick’s polarizing swan song takes place in a Manhattan of the mind, specifically the sexually frustrated brain stem of Tom Cruise’s upper-crust physician. The film’s fantasy Greenwich Village, populated by taunting fratboys, a hard-sell hooker and a Lolita-like teen is especially weird—and disquieting.—Keith Uhlich

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Wolfen (1981)

Long before it was cool to go green, Woodstock director Michael Wadleigh helmed this environmentally conscious (though still pretty damned scary) werewolf movie. The South Bronx provides some memorably decayed, practically postapocalyptic terrain, and a number of vertigo-inducing scenes are shot atop the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.—Keith Uhlich

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Man Push Cart (2005)

Indie filmmaker Ramin Bahrani provides an eloquent, empathetic backstory to a pushcart vendor so street-corner standard, he’s all but invisible to passersby. Bahrani explores the fictional man’s past as a Pakistani rock star and his lonely, lowly present in a New York that’s both beautiful and coolly indifferent to his Sisyphean struggle.—Alison Willmore

Watch now on iTunes Buy on Amazon

Hamlet (2000)

Michael Almereyda transposes William Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy to the world of high finance as Ethan Hawke’s brooding prince goes up against his slick CEO stepfather. The modern-day setting—moving from grungy streets to antiseptic boardrooms and even that cylindrical mousetrap the Guggenheim—adds thematic heft to the greatest of all plays.—Keith Uhlich

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Filmed at the peak of Hollywood’s political paranoia, this CIA thriller captures a tense, spy-saturated NYC that would reappear in The Bourne Ultimatum. Choice local touches include Robert Redford’s clandestine office on 77th Street at Madison, a quiet Brooklyn Heights getaway (occupied by sultry Faye Dunaway) and a WTC window overlooking the intrigue.—Joshua Rothkopf

Watch now on iTunes Watch now at Amazon Instant Video

« previous
next »

Your rating
Name *
Email *
Comment *
* mandatory fields

Comments & ratings

(31 ratings)

wheres THE WANDERS or HEAVEN HELP US!!!

Chris Mon Jul 9 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
You guys should "snap out of it!" Moonstruck, Lost Weekend, 12 Angry Men, Dead End, Miracle on 34th Street, Odd Couple, Nothing Sacred, Pride of the Yankees. On the Waterfront may have the NYC skyline as a backdrop but it is still New Jersey, City Island (Bronx. NY)

Dennis Ferraro Mon Jul 9 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Who put this list together? There is no way Spike Lee's garbage,is better then The Godfather.

J.Muller Mon Jul 9 2012
Rated as: 2/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery is my all-time favorite movie, so I vote for its inclusion on this otherwise fine list!

Maria Katrien Mon Jul 9 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Rear Window was entirely filmed in LA - most of it on a set. A great movie but not a NYC movie.

Mary Sun Jul 8 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Glaring omissions (IMHO): An Unmarried Woman-Perfect portrayal of the late '70s Upper East Side life as well as the pre-commercialization of SoHo; Moonstruck-One of the most famous scenes of the Met in a film and great scenes in Brooklyn; Working Girl-the RomCom version of "Wall Street" and one of few films with scenes set in Staten Island; Crossing Delancey-another RomCom, but great portrayal of both life in the Lower East Side, as well as late-80s single UWS life; Men In Black-especially for the fantastic scenes set in Flushing Meadow Park, and Barefoot in the Park and The Out of Towners (original), both of which introduced me to NYC as a kid.

Babs Sun Jul 8 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
probably ppl cant understand this is not a list about the quality itself of the films set in New York, but a list of the films which better show and describe New York.

asc Sun Jul 8 2012
Rated as: 4/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Ghostbusters(14) is above The Godfather(41)!!! ARE YOU KIDD'N ME!!!!!!

cameron Sun Jul 8 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
I thought you would like this.

Cheryl Sun Jul 8 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
What about "BIll Cunningham New York"? You guys have "Man on Wire" (a great choice) but not that? I will say, it's great to acknowledge "Wolfen" but its visuals of late 70s New York really make it deserved to be in the Top 50. Not one film ever made has so captured NYC the way it did.

Clarence Sun Jul 8 2012
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *