New York, I Love You is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama film made up of eleven short films, each directed by a different person. All the short films are connected to the theme of love and take place in the five boroughs of New York City. The film follows a similar format to the 2006 movie Paris, je t'aime and is the second film in the Cities of Love series, created and produced by Emmanuel Benbihy.
The film features many actors, including Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Andy García, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Cloris Leachman, Robin Wright, Julie Christie, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, James Caan, Shu Qi, and Eli Wallach.
New York, I Love You first showed at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008. It was released in the United States on October 16, 2009. The film earned $9.7 million at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics.
Segments
Unlike the film Paris, je t'aime, the short films in New York, I Love You share a common feature: a person who films the other people in the stories.
The film’s premiere at TIFF included 14 short films. However, the people who distribute the film later decided to remove two of them: These Vagabond Shoes, directed by Scarlett Johansson, and Apocrypha, directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev. This decision followed a group of people in New York who gave their opinions, and these two films were not well received.
Release
The film made $1,588,087 in the United States and $8,136,973 in other countries, making the total worldwide amount $9,725,060.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 37% approval rating based on 100 reviews, with an average score of 5.10 out of 10. The site’s critics’ consensus states: "Like many anthologies, New York, I Love You has issues with consistency, but it has some good parts." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, which means the reviews are mixed or average.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B, noting that it uses a similar idea from the 2007 film Paris, je t'aime, but applies it to New York City. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars, writing that because of its structure, the film does not feel complete. It is simply a collection of different stories. A. O. Scott of The New York Times gave a mixed review, stating that the 11 short films in the movie are not terrible. New York City is visually appealing, but the scenes showing the city’s skyline and traffic are not very original, similar to postcards sold in Times Square.
Erica Abeel of The Hollywood Reporter wrote a review about the film. Heidi Patalano of Metro New York gave the film a 4 out of 5. Claudia Puig of USA Today explains that anthology films are naturally uneven because they have many different stories.
In popular culture
An episode of the Netflix series Master of None is named after the movie New York, I Love You. Like the movie, the episode shows different people's lives that connect in New York City. The stories are not only about love.