Union City

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Audience Member "Union city is charming, though that may seem a strange word to use. What renders this frenzied little lyric important is that it's the first film to show a new wave sensibility without recourse to the ritual of new wave music. The same cheerful pessimism is there and so are the smarting ironies: the cover the ‘50s, viewed from the present, like cloths over pieces of furniture. The malaise that set into American life during that well-heeled era — the rush to success and the AlmightyDollar — is captured in Lipscomb's gangling, emotionally stuttering performance. He is a heated-up Raskolnikov, Union City a jokey Crime and Punishment. Mark Reichert, who adapted as well as directed the Cornell Woolrich story, never loses control of his material. The scope is as small as the budget, but the movie is the best designed of the year, shot in peachy tones by Edward Lachman as if from inside a seashell. Visually in summons up the ‘50s better than any film in recent memory: the flash of neon through apartment rooms, the filtering of light through venetian blinds, the placid still lifes of living quarters worked at oh so carefully. And then there is Blondie's Deborah Harry who, while not much of an actress, is a striking presence. Union City is a comedy with an edge, finishing with an ironic flourish worthy of de Maupassant. Everything in the movie is slightly out of kilter, deliberately so; is a continuous distillation of irony. It's one perfect sigh followed by an equally perfect peal of laughter." L.O.T. MACLEAN's May 1980 Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member awful, just awful. like a high school play. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member ★★1/2 (out of four) I love Debbie Harry and I love Pat Benatar, but I think they'll be remembered more for their 2009 tour together and their dozens of hits in the 1980's than for this little misfire of a movie The atmosphere is great in this story about a man living across the Hudson from New York in Union City, New Jersey. Things turn murderous when he tries to capture who has been taking sips from his milk bottle. The mood can't quite make up for the odd script. Though it doesn't quite succeed it is still kind of fun to see two 1980's icons together in a movie, early in their careers. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/Zeppo1/UnionCity.jpg[/IMG] Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Union City

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