Broad Appeal

We watched this movie so you don't have to: in the 1980s Manhattan art scene, Bernadette Peters is a bohemian babe whose lack of funds keep her in slave-like subservience to a chauvinist brat who just happens to be in possession of his own loft apartment (and a set of very appealing lean twink-muscles). But all she really wants to do is make her own (crazy-as-fuck) hats. [Ed. Note: none of this is important.] SLAVES OF NEW YORK may not seem like your typical Merchant-Ivory flick but it's actually a costume drama - only this time the costumes feature day-glo colors, shoulder pads, teased-out hair, and orange eye shadow. Based on zeitgeisty stories by scene queen Tama Janowitz, this has been at the top of Brian and Seán's viewing queue for some time. They expected a mess of film'sa movie with "up-to-minute" satire that had dated faster than a plate of sashimi. What they got was a surprising cavalcade of stars -- including Mercedes Ruehl, Stanley Tucci, and Steve Buscemi -- wandering around parties and fashio