Spike Lee will make you cry with his gorgeous tribute to an empty New York


On Friday, director Spike Lee released a new short film called "New York, New York," which he described in an Instagram caption as being "a love letter" to the city's people. Shooting on Kodak Super 8 film, the Do the Right Thing filmmaker captures the city under quarantine, from its empty landmarks to its makeshift hospitals, flashing ambulances, and masked health care workers. The three-and-a-half minute video is set, appropriately, to Frank Sinatra's famous ode to the Big Apple, although the images give a whole new context to classic lines like, "I'll make a brand new start of it, in old New York."
Slate's film critic Dana Stevens called it perhaps the "best Spike Lee movie of the 21st century," and while that may be egregious Inside Man erasure, you can watch it below. Jeva Lange
View this post on InstagramPlain And Simple. Special Love Shout To Ms. TINA SINATRA,SONY/ATV,KERWIN DEVONISH (Camera),ADAM GOODE (Editor),TIM STACKER And KODAK For The Super 8 Film And Cameras.A post shared by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on May 7, 2020 at 6:47pm PDT
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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