Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Next Stop, Greenwich Village is a 1976 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky, featuring Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, Ellen Greene, Lois Smith, and Christopher Walken. Plot. The film takes place in 1953. Larry Lipinsky is a 22-year old Jewish boy from the Jewish enclave Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York, who has dreams of stardom. He moves to Greenwich Village, much to the chagrin of his extremely over-protective mother. Larry ends up hanging out with an eccentric bunch of characters while waiting for his big break. He has a group of  tight-knit friends, which includes a wacky girl named Connie; Anita, an emotionally distraught woman who constantly contemplates suicide; Robert, a young WASP who fancies himself a poet; and Bernstein, an African-American gay man. All the while, he tries to maintain a stormy relationship with Sarah, his girlfriend. This band of outsiders becomes Larry's new family as he struggles as an actor and works toward a break in Hollywood. Production. Filmmaker Mazursky had made his acting debut in Stanley Kubrick's 1953 film "Fear and Desire", and "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" is a semi-autobiographical account of Mazursky 's early life as an actor. The film was entered into the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Casting. This film is also notable for being Bill Murray's first film, with Murray having a few minutes of screen time. Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken (credited as Chris Walken) are relatively early in their respective careers. Reception. Critical reception. The film generally was well received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "fresh" score of 82% based on 17 reviews.