Movie of the week

I just watched “Next Stop, Greenwich Village,” from 1976. What can I say? I’ve never seen it, it was on, I couldn’t stop watching, and it’s by Paul Mazursky, who really is one of the great unsung directors of the 1970s and ‘80s. The film is about an actor (Lenny Baker) trying to make it in New York.

But it pulls back just far enough to show us his fellow artists livin’ it up in full bohemian rhapsody in 1953, following "American Graffiti" and "The Last Picture Show" as 1970s generational portraits set in the 50s. Christopher Walker and Jeff Goldblum have small parts, and Walken is particularly good playing a fey poet. The dialogue – about abortion, being Jewish, being a Southern belle who loves black men, among many other things – is funny and sometimes ridiculous, but it's also just urgent and sharp enough not to sound cheap or campy after all these years.

There are some sloppy moments, like when Baker’s parents show up in the middle of a house party. (Duck, it’s Shelly Winters!) But Mazursky keeps the film nice and serious, but light at the same time. There’s an air of tragedy about all this – being poor and unemployed in New York can be tragic – but Mazursky knew how to make the ideas and identities and circumstances relevant. At his best – 1989’s “Enemies: A Love Story” was his last worthy film (he hasn’t directed a feature in years) – he made some feelings universal and lasting. And no American director has really come along since who's as smart and perceptive and good with actors.

Mazursky, do you have one more in you?