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Times Square

Times Square

7 Episodes

“Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets . . .” Careful what you wish for! Before it hypergentrified into the ultimate emblem of New York City in the throes of late-capitalist excess, the old, unsanitized Times Square was a pungent playground of drama, danger, sin, and sleaze that embodied the untamed id of the city at its most extreme. It’s no wonder that it served as such a potent cinematic muse, providing the vivid backdrop for tales of weirdos, iconoclasts, outcasts, and lost souls navigating the daily adventure of life in the urban jungle. Hustlers (MIDNIGHT COWBOY), badass blaxploitation detectives (SHAFT), runaway teenage punks (TIMES SQUARE), sadistic giallo killers (THE NEW YORK RIPPER), porn-theater voyeurs (VARIETY), and ruthless gangsters (KING OF NEW YORK) are all part of the cavalcade of humanity populating these gloriously grimy cinematic time capsules that take us back to the good bad old days of a lost New York that perhaps even the above-quoted Travis Bickle (TAXI DRIVER) might miss.

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Times Square

7 Episodes

  • Times Square Teaser
    01:11
    Times Square Teaser
    Episode 1

    Times Square Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Times Square
    1:50:55
    Times Square
    Episode 2

    Times Square

    Episode 2

    Directed by Allan Moyle • 1980 • United States
    Starring Tim Curry, Trini Alvarado, Robin Johnson

    Problem teens Pamela (Trini Alvarado) and Nicky (Robin Johnson) bust out of a mental institution and go straight through the looking glass into Koch-era New York City, a grimy wonderland wherein the...

  • The New York Ripper
    1:33:02
    The New York Ripper
    Episode 3

    The New York Ripper

    Episode 3

    Directed by Lucio Fulci • 1982 • Italy
    Starring Jack Hedley, Almanta Suska, Howard Ross

    A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose, turning the Big Apple bright red with the blood of beautiful young women. As NYPD detective Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) follows the trail of butchery from the dec...

  • Variety
    1:40:39
    Variety
    Episode 4

    Variety

    Episode 4

    Directed by Bette Gordon • 1983 • United States
    Starring Sandy McLeod, Will Patton, Richard M. Davidson

    The provocative, sexually charged tale of a woman’s journey of self-discovery, Bette Gordon’s independent landmark offers a bold challenge to conventional notions of feminism and pornography. ...

  • God Told Me To
    1:29:39
    God Told Me To
    Episode 5

    God Told Me To

    Episode 5

    Directed by Larry Cohen • 1976 • United States
    Starring Tony Lo Bianco, Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis

    A rooftop sniper guns down fourteen pedestrians on the streets of New York City. A mild-mannered dad takes a shotgun and blows away his wife and children. A cop goes on a sudden shooting spree at...

  • King of New York
    1:43:14
    King of New York
    Episode 6

    King of New York

    Episode 6

    Directed by Abel Ferrara • 1990 • United States
    Starring Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso

    Renegade director Abel Ferrara—working in collaboration with his regular screenwriter Nicholas St. John—brings his murky moral worldview and eye for pulp imagery to this kinetic, stylish...

  • The Gods of Times Square
    1:54:16
    The Gods of Times Square
    Episode 7

    The Gods of Times Square

    Episode 7

    Directed by Richard Sandler • 1999 • United States

    Over the course of six years, street photographer and filmmaker Richard Sandler documents the Giuliani-era transformation of Manhattan’s Times Square, as mom-and-pop stores and the colorful characters who made the intersection a “speakers’ corne...

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