Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2010

This second in a series of city-centric cinematic pastiches that began in 2006 with Paris, Je t’aime (Rio de Janeiro is reportedly next) features ten sequences by ten directors (plus one more for “transitions”), each focusing on an aspect he or she considers definitive of the Big Apple. Each segment had to be shot in two days and run no more than eight minutes. As with such efforts, some of these vignettes are powerful and memorable, some are talky, some manage to be magical, and some just don’t work at all. Too many to describe in this space, but a pretty good night at the independent movies.