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Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Drama · 1989

A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.

Movie details

Last Exit to Brooklyn

“The Novel That Shocked The World Is Now A Movie”

1989 Drama 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Last Exit to Brooklyn?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

La Bamba

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Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob, and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly.

Midnight Cowboy

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Drama · 1969

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

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American Pastoral

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Uli Edel

Written by

Desmond Nakano

Stephen Lang

Stephen Lang

Harry Black

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Tralala

Burt Young

Burt Young

Big Joe

Peter Dobson

Peter Dobson

Vinnie

Christopher Murney

Christopher Murney

Paulie

Jerry Orbach

Jerry Orbach

Boyce

Alexis Arquette

Alexis Arquette

Georgette

Court is in session

Put Last Exit to Brooklyn on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.