Next Stop, Greenwich Village Movie

Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Rating:
Run Time: 111 min
MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1976
Directors: Paul Mazursky
Genre/Type: Comedy Drama
Producers: Paul Mazursky
Tony Ray
Les Alexander
Plot Synopsis by Lucia Bozzola
An aspiring actor leaves his home in Brooklyn for adulthood in Manhattan in Paul Mazursky's loosely autobiographical comedy-drama. In 1953, would-be thesp Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) flees his hysterically clinging mother (Shelley Winters) for a $25-a-month (!!) apartment in bohemian Greenwich Village. Between Method-like acting classes, a movie audition (where he meets a posturing actor played by Jeff Goldblum), and work at a juice bar, Larry hangs out with a circle of archetypal Village eccentrics, including suicidal Anita (Lois Smith), womanizing poet Robert (Christopher Walken), and flamboyantly un-closeted homosexual Bernstein (Antonio Fargas), as he negotiates the pitfalls of love and sex with liberated girlfriend Sarah (Ellen Greene). The fallout over the group's ill-fated love affairs, and the Lapinskys' inopportune surprise visits, finally lead Larry to make peace with his past as he contemplates his future in Hollywood. Mazursky looks back to the 1950s as in such other 1970s films as American Graffiti, Grease, and TV's Happy Days, but his Greenwich Village life is less a time of lost pre-'60s innocence than a precursor of things to come. Sex, Larry jokes, may be serious, but it is also an omnipresent fact of life rather than something to be feared or repressed; love is the real problem. Even as Larry's friends strike various poses, they are all out to do their own thing as best they can. Critical response to Mazursky's nostalgia trip was mixed when the film was released, but the performances, particularly Winters, were admired.

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Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) is a young man seeking fame and discovering independence in Paul Mazursky's bittersweet comedy set in the 1950's. His mother (Shelley Winters) is distr...

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Back to the top Top Questions about Next Stop, Greenwich Village

An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953... more | add synopsis
No He isn't The Movie does however star Larry Lapinsky and Faye Lapinsky. Cha Cha On!
*Lenny Baker as Larry Lapinsky *Shelley Winters as Fay Lapinsky *Ellen Greene as Sarah *Lois Smith as Anita
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Cast

Actors Character Born
Lenny Baker Larry Lapinsky
Shelley Winters Mrs. Lapinsky Aug 18, 1922 in East St. Louis, IL
Ellen Greene Sarah Feb 22, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Lois Smith Anita
Christopher Walken Robert Mar 31, 1943 in Astoria, Queens, NY
Dori Brenner Connie Dec 16, 1946 in Manhattan, NY
Antonio Fargas Bernstein
Lou Jacobi Herb Dec 28, 1913 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mike Kellin Mr. Lapinsky Apr 26, 1922 in Hartford, CT
Michael Egan Herbert
Denise Galik Ellen
John C. Becher Sid Weinberg the producer Jan 13, 1915
John Ford Noonan Barney
Helen Hanft Herb's Wife
Rashel Novikoff Mrs. Tupperman, neighbor
Joe Madden Jake the Poet
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Back to the topReview

Review by Michael Costello
Paul Mazursky's autobiographical film about his salad years in the Village is a warmly nostalgic comedy. In the decades before the sexual revolution of the '60s and '70s, the Village was famed as a magnet for those interested in sexual experimentation or simply sex without the inconvenience of marriage. Among them is Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker), an aspiring actor who escapes from a semi-hysterical mother (Shelley Winters) in Brooklyn to learn about life among a circle of mildly eccentric friends in the Village of 1953. Mazursky is much more interested in exploring the daisy chain of relationships among Larry and his friends than in his career, and his depiction of the way in which this narcissistic group of characters are able to help and support each another is the heart of the film. While the constant interruptions of his parents into Larry's quest to get laid are reminiscent of the borscht belt schtick, Mazursky memorializes both his youthful confusion about sex and love and the gradual progress of his sentimental education with comic precision. The director looks fondly back to a more innocent time and finds the roots of the theme of sexual sharing that would remain a constant in his work. Lenny Baker is wonderful as the earnest, aspiring actor in his last performance before his untimely death at the age of 32, and Walken and Winters stand out among a uniformly excellent cast.

Next Stop, Greenwich Village on TV

Zip Code: 10010 · Provider: Verizon Fios Queens-Digital (Fresh Meadows) Edit
Mar 30 , 12:00 AM ET · Next Stop, Greenwich Village  · Channel 232 · FMC · Duration: 120 min.
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