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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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(31 ratings)

HEAVY TRAFFIC.

JW Fri Jul 6 2012
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"Bill Cunningham New York" was an excellent documentary not only for fashion, but as a portrait of all NYC.

kay Fri Jul 6 2012
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C'mon Josh, 'Eye's Wide Shut' was NOT really about NYC and it WAS NOT even shot there....all of the scene's that were supposed to be in Greenwich Village were actually filmed on Worship Street in London, most of the film was shot at Pinewood Studios, even the "FAO Schwarz" scene at the end was shot at Hamley's the famous toy shop on Regent Street in London, the cocktail party was shot in Luton!!...Kubrick used some exterior shots of a few real new york locations like the Polish Consulate for set-ups and transitions, all shot by a second unit, but by no measure could this film be considered a "New York City" movie, the proliferation of "T-Junctions" on the street grid, the prop phone booths and mailboxes which recur in the background of several scenes are all dead giveaways to any native new yorker, or any street conscious new york resident for that matter, that the film was clearly not even ATTEMPTING to replicate nyc, the film is far more hallucinatory and implicit in its artistic aspirations and clearly did not reflect the faintest interest on the filmmakers behalf to accurately capture nyc. Still, a good movie, just not a 'Top 100 NYC movie' Editorially yours, - Zak Van Buren

Zak Van Buren Fri Jul 6 2012
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no sex and the city part 1? granting part of the movie is set in mexico and l.a., wasn't most of king kong set in skull island (i.e. not new york)?

mark Fri Jul 6 2012
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How is Quick Change not on this list?

Doug Fri Jul 6 2012
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"Times Square" should've been on the list. It managed to make grimy, sleazy, late 70's NYC into an almost magical wonderland.

Matt Fri Jul 6 2012
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hi how to keep a full list of movie from this post for later on?

Lin xu Fri Jul 6 2012
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What? With it's geographically accurate car chase all the way through 70's Manhattan, how did "The Seven-Ups" not make this list? Also, Where's "The Hot Rock"? It has great helicopter shots around the still under construction WTC, and some great scenes in and around the Brooklyn Museum. Also, I think "Vampire's Kiss" deserves some consideration...

electromedia Fri Jul 6 2012
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More Great NYC Films: 1. Basquiat - if only for Courtenay Love's wonderful, unflattering portrait of a slightly-fictionalized young Madonna; but also for its dead-on depiction of the early '80s. 2. Hair - Because New York City is a primary character throughout the movie, especially in Twyla Tharp's dance/dream sequences.

rita ragan Fri Jul 6 2012
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More NY beauties: The Age of Innocence; A Chorus Line; Stage Door; Desk Set

nylifer Fri Jul 6 2012
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