Whit Stillman’s wryly funny indie—set “not so long ago,” according to a title card—centers on a set of wealthy, New York City coeds (and one red-headed, Upper West Side outsider) during debutante ball season, over their winter break. What could easily be a send-up of the insular uptown rich, however, turns out to be a very charming study of identity politics, teenage angst, strip poker, and love across the aisle on snow-dusted Park Avenue. (NB: For a somewhat grittier follow-up, watch The Last Days of Disco—Stillman’s paean to the downtown club scene and its hapless adherents—from 1998, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale.)
The Prince of Tides (1991)
Photo: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
It helps that in The Prince of Tides, adapted from Pat Conroy’s popular 1986 novel, the protagonist—Nick Nolte’s ornery, South Carolina–born Tom Wingo—arrives in New York determined to hate it. But as he falls in love with his sister’s psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand, who also directs), so too does he fall for her loud, unfriendly city. In no time, we see Wingo playing football in the park, strolling past the Corner Bookstore on 93rd and Madison, bidding a fond farewell in bustling Grand Central Station, and slow-dancing in the Rainbow Room.
Crooklyn (1994)
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
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