The Ballad of Greenwich Village

Kramer's skin-deep chronicle of New York's most iconic 'hood riffs on 200 years of Village art and politics, from the beats to the punks, from the suffragettes to the Stonewall drag queens. It's a lot to cover, and each era of the rich history ultimately receives only a cursory treatment. That might have been unavoidable, but with no discernible structure, the film fails to convey why the Village was and—amazingly, given its soulless gentrification—continues to be a beacon to artists and outcasts everywhere.