It has a 6.9 rating in IMDb.com: An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953.
Critics give it 80% in Rotten Tomatoes, the audience 66% (there is not accounting for taste, is there?).
Larry Lipinski is a Brooklyn Jew, 22 years old, and is moving out of his parents's home, to grow up, to be with his liberated girlfriend, to pursue acting. (In a voiceover, which I watched a bit of, Paul Mazursky says that Larry is partly him.) It is 1953. The Rosenbergs are on the brink of being executed. Yet Larry and his friends, while politically aware, are more interested in other matters: sex, the meaning of life, whether to go to Mexico or not, and suicide.
Chris Walken plays Robert, a handosme ladies man whose libido is only matched in size by his ego. Jeff Goldblum plays a small but discernible role as a pushy, loud actor. Bill Murray has a small speakign part in a bar. Vincent Schiavelli is a party guest who drinks and laughs.
Shelley Winters overplays the Jewish mother who can't let go of her boy, can't stop meddling, and can't (or won't) see how she is hurting the very ones she loves. Yet, in her overplaying, Winters does super work. Antonio Fargas does nice work as an openly gay black man (remember, the 1976 movie was portraying 1953), and Lou Jacobi shines as the juice bar shopowner where Larry gets a job while he waits for his big break.
Larry and his friends go to a coffeehouse, to hang out and philosophize. I recognized it immediately, or so I thought, though the street outside seemed not to fit. But a shot confirmed that it was Cafe Reggio.
Ebert gave it 3 stars. I liked it, too.
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