There's a famous song lyric that seems applicable when talking about the best New York City movies. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere—and a lot of filmmakers do indeed make movies set in New York City. Hollywood has always looked towards the other coast and at the Big Apple for inspiration, finding countless stories within the City That Never Sleeps.
Whether it's hosting a charming romance, the scene of a gripping crime thriller, lit up with holiday cheer, or being destroyed by a giant monster in some of the best horror movies, New York City has seen it all, and as cliche as it may sound, the city itself is a character.
Here, then, are 32 of the best New York City movies. Grab a slice of pizza (folding it in half, of course), and get ready to watch, because this train—err, this list—is leaving the station.
32. Escape From New York
Year: 1981
Director: John Carpenter
Kurt Russell plays Snake Plissken, one of the coolest '80s action heroes, in John Carpenter's stylish, occasionally wacky sci-fi actioner. In the then-future of 1997, Manhattan has been turned into a walled-off prison island. When the plane carrying the president (Donald Pleasence) is shot down over New York City, Plissken, a criminal, is recruited to go in, get the president, and get out in 22 hours. Carpenter's colorful, dystopian take on the Big Apple is exaggerated, but there's a loving kernel of truth in its depiction. (The poster for Escape From New York, with the Statue of Liberty's head lying in the middle of a city street, inspired one of the most famous visuals from the found footage monster movie Cloverfield, which is also a great NYC flick.)
31. Q - The Winged Serpent
Year: 1982
Director: Larry Cohen
The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a giant dragon-like creature, has made a nest for itself in the top of the Chrysler Building in this singular kaiju flick. Despite flying out in the middle of the day to eat New Yorkers, nobody in a city of millions seems to know where the monster is hiding except for one petty criminal with big dreams of being a jazz pianist (Michael Moriarty). Q is an absurd movie and knows it's absurd. However, it plays the action mostly straight with a fun dose of '80s New York grime.
30. 200 Cigarettes
Year: 1999
Director: Risa Bramon Garcia
A star-studded comedy that's largely been forgotten due to how impossible it's been to stream, 200 Cigarettes follows a group of people (including Ben and Casey Affleck, Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Christina Ricci, and more) around New York City on New Year's Eve 1981. Anybody who has ever found themselves out in the city looking for a good time—or having to pivot when plans fall through or things change—can appreciate the weird and wonderful magic that 200 Cigarettes captures.
29. The Warriors
Year: 1979
Director: Walter Hill
New York was in somewhat rough shape during the '70s, and this cult classic action flick takes that reality to an extreme, envisioning a city that has been almost fully overrun by colorful gangs. When the Warriors, a group from Coney Island, are famed for murder at a summit of all the gangs at a park way up in the Bronx, they must make it back to their home turf with every cop and rival gang chasing after them. As far as tours of the city go, there are worse ways to familiarize yourself with New York's subway lines than by watching The Warriors.
28. Miracle on 34th Street
Year: 1947
Director: George Seaton
One of the best Christmas movies of all time is also a classic New York City movie. The famed Macy's department store on 34th Street (itself a New York institution) needs a Santa Claus for the holidays, and event director Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) finds one in a man who introduces himself as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn). He's a dead-ringer for the real Santa Claus—and claims to be the real Santa, leading to the most holly jolly and high-stakes legal case Manhattan has ever seen.
27. Inside Man
Year: 2006
Director: Spike Lee
Spike Lee has made many movies about New York City, his longtime home and muse, but 2006's stylish crime thriller Inside Man might be the most fun. Clive Owen stars as the leader of a group of robbers who have taken a Manhattan bank hostage, while on the outside Denzel Washington plays the detective who is trying to figure out exactly what the crooks' plan is. Propulsive and clever, Inside Man is a great showcase for what could be called stock New York-types, like the brash cop or braggadocious bystander, but Lee makes them all feel just on the right side of over-the-top.
26. Panic Room
Year: 2002
Director: David Fincher
A thriller about New York City real estate? Anybody who has tried to get an apartment in the Big Apple might think that feels redundant, but David Fincher's Panic Room is an immaculately plotted romp. Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart star as a mother and daughter whose expensive new brownstone on the Upper West Side is invaded by robbers, forcing them to retreat to a safe-like panic room the previous owner had built. From there, it's a high-stakes game of cat and mouse as the pair tries to escape or call for help while the robbers (Forest Whitaker and Jared Leto) try to break in.
25. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Year: 1990
Director: Joe Dante
Gremlins 2 takes the entry-level horror of the suburban-set original film and dials up the anarchistic comedy in the sequel, which takes place inside a Manhattan skyscraper. When Gizmo, the mogwai from the original 1984 film, ends up in a lab that's rented space inside the billionaire Daniel Clamp's building, he gets wet (of course) and spawns chaos-loving gremlins (of course) that threaten the whole city should they escape. A wacky parody of a certain kind of late-'80s New York (and also a parody of a zillion other things), Gremlins 2 is a hands-down masterpiece of cinema.
24. American Psycho
Year: 2000
Director: Mary Harron
"Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?" Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, an '80s Wall Street yuppie who is even more psychotic than the average finance bro. An adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel, American Psycho is both funny and disturbing; a deeply insightful look at masculinity, violence, wealth, and privilege through the lens of New York City's elite as they chase fancy restaurant reservations and status symbols. And, in Patrick's case, chase victims.
23. Rear Window
Year: 1954
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
James Stewart plays L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies, a photographer who is cooped up in his New York apartment in a cast following an injury in one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films. With nothing better to do, Jeff starts using his camera to snoop on his neighbors—until, one night, he thinks he's observed evidence of a murder. With the help of his girlfriend, Lisa (an absolutely radiant Grace Kelly), the homebound Jeff must try to uncover the truth. Though filmed on sets rather than on location, Rear Window still captures something special about the way New York puts people of all different sorts together in such close proximity as neighbors—for better and worse.
22. Rosemary's Baby
Year: 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
A paradox of New York City is that you're almost never alone—neighbors are just on the other side of the apartment wall—but it can still sometimes be lonely. Roman Polanski's horror masterpiece Rosemary's Baby evokes this feeling well, as Rosemary (Mia Farrow) feels increasingly isolated and stressed despite how much her neighbors at her new apartment building check on her—and how interested they are in her pregnancy. Turns out there's a nefarious, devilish reason for that, but even before the iconic reveal, Rosemary's Baby nails a certain slice of city life.
21. Home Alone 2
Year: 1992
Director: John Hughes
Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is all by himself on Christmas yet again, except this time he's not in his family's big house in the Chicago suburbs but in The Big Apple! The first Home Alone sequel's premise is a little contrived (of course, he'd run into Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern's bandits again). However, Home Alone 2 still works wonders as a showcase for the thrilling possibilities that await in New York City—be they fancy hotel rooms or pigeon ladies.
20. King Kong
Year: 1933
Directors: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
The first half or so of this seminal film (aka one of the best monster movies ever made) takes place in the dinosaur-filled jungles of Skull Island. The second half takes place in a concrete jungle, as the Eighth Wonder of the World escapes his chains on Broadway and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building—at the time the highest building on the planet. The visual of Kong swatting at airplanes atop the landmark has become one of the iconic, defining visuals of New York City. You can't help but think of the great ape scaling the building whenever you look at the city's skyline.
19. Shaft
Year: 1971
Director: Gordon Parks
Richard Roundtree stars as the title character in one of the great blaxploitation flicks, which follows private detective John Shaft as he battles the Italian mob to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Harlem mobster. It's a rollicking, occasionally pulpy look at a side of the city that Hollywood often ignored. Although it spawned sequels, Shaft is perhaps most famous for the Oscar-winning theme from composer Isaac Hayes, a funky, impossibly cool soul classic.
18. Marty
Year: 1955
Director: Delbert Mann
This small romantic drama with a big heart was the first movie to win the Palme d'Or and Best Picture at the Oscars, and it's not too hard to see why. Ernest Borgnine plays the title character, a sweet but, by his own admission, ugly butcher in his mid-30s who still lives with his mother in the Bronx and has given up on any chance at love. That is, anyway, until he meets a girl who love hasn't been especially kind to either. Marty is heartfelt and charming, and it's a great representation of a certain type of New Yorker.
17. The Daytrippers
Year: 1996
Director: Greg Mottola
When Eliza (Hope Davis) suspects that her husband (Stanley Tucci) might be having an affair, her whole family piles into the station wagon to drive from Long Island into Manhattan on the day after Thanksgiving to confront him. The Daytrippers is a beautiful, funny portrait of a flawed family (aren't they all?), boasting great performances from Anne Meara, Parker Posey, and Liev Schreiber, and it is also a showcase for the role New York plays for those who live just outside of the five boroughs. Those for whom the city is just a day trip away.
16. Robot Dreams
Year: 2023
Director: Pablo Berger
Robot Dreams' 1984 New York is inhabited by animals, but is otherwise a note-perfect recreation of what the city feels like. In this dialog-free animated film, a Spanish-French co-production based on an American graphic novel, a lonely dog living in Manhattan decides to buy a robot friend. Their relationship takes some twists and turns—at times, tearjerking ones—though Robot Dreams is ultimately a wonderfully illustrated tribute to life in a sometimes cartoonish city.
15. After Hours
Year: 1985
Director: Martin Scorsese
One of the great Martin Scorsese's less heralded efforts, After Hours is nonetheless a spot-on (if exaggerated) recreation of a New York City experience that's both universal and unique. Griffin Dunne stars as Paul, a guy who heads to SoHo late at night in the hopes of scoring a date. What he finds when he gets this is a series of increasingly bizarre and harrowing characters—the sort that are the reason why New York is known as "the city that never sleeps." If you've ever been out in an unfamiliar part of the city and gotten swept away in the weirdness of the night, After Hours is for you.
14. Elf
Year: 2003
Director: Jon Favreau
Arguably the first true Christmas classic of the millennium, Jon Favreau's Elf stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human who was raised by elves at the North Pole and who goes to his New York City birthplace to meet his biological father, a publisher named Walter Hobbs (James Caan) who is on the naughty list. Elf is a holiday delight, and is notable for making New York at Christmas Time seem just as magical—if not more so—than the North Pole, a Rankin/Bass-esque stop-motion winter wonderland.
13. 25th Hour
Year: 2002
Director: Spike Lee
One of Spike Lee's many great New York City movies is also one of the great post-9/11 films, starring Edward Norton as Monty Brogan, a man enjoying his last 24 hours of freedom before he starts a seven-year prison sentence for drug dealing. Much like the city, Monty is at an unsure time in his life, and Lee finds poignancy in his attempts to make amends and reflect on how he got here before the next phase begins. 25th Hour also features a lengthy, foul-mouthed monologue where Monty tells off basically every aspect of New York, and although he's angry, it's clear that only somebody who knows and loves the city, flaws and all, could bring it to life.
12. Inside Llewelyn Davis
Year: 2013
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Oscar Isaac stars as Llewelyn Davis, a singer trying to make it in New York's folk music scene in 1961. While quite talented, he isn't Bob Dylan, and the Coen Brothers' beautiful, darkly comedic movie follows him over the course of a week as he struggles to find success—or, heck, stability. Although the era that Inside Llewelyn Davis recreates is long gone, the film makes it feel heartbreakingly real. At times, New York's indifference to its inhabitants is one of its greatest features; at other times, as seen in this movie, it's a punch to the gut.
11. Sweet Smell of Success
Year: 1957
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
The era of Manhattan where print columnists held immense sway and held court over martini lunches is over, but Sweet Smell of Success, one of the great film noirs, is transportive, giving viewers a front-row seat to moral rot. An incredible Burt Lancaster stars as J. J. Hunsecker, a writer for the New York Globe whose words could make or break people, and press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) needs to be in Hunsecker's good graces. If Falco manages to get Hunsecker's kid sister to break up with her boyfriend by whatever dubious means he can, he'll give Falco the world—he just might lose himself first in the process.
10. Spider-Man 2
Year: 2004
Director: Sam Raimi
It doesn't matter that the New York City subway system does not have a train that runs elevated for so long in the middle of Manhattan, as seen in Spider-Man 2's best set piece. Okay? It doesn't matter. Sam Raimi might've fudged infrastructure geography a bit, but Spider-Man 2 is one of the truest depictions of New York and New Yorkers. There are plenty of colorful characters who seem straight out of a comic book walking around the five boroughs, and in Tobey Maguire's web-slinger, Spider-Man 2 gives them the hero they deserve while also recognizing the hero inside the average citizen. When the non-superpowered passengers on the train stand together to attempt to protect Spidey from Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), that's the true spirit of the city right there. The fact that this is also one of the best superhero movies of all time is just an added bonus.
9. The Apartment
Year: 1960
Director: Billy Wilder
"Shut up and deal." Jack Lemmon plays C.C. "Bud" Baxter, an employee at a large insurance company who has one thing his bosses really value him for: his Upper West Side apartment is very conveniently located by the office, and he rents it out to them so they can have their extramarital affairs. But, when he begins to fall for Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator in his office building, it sets him down a path that might just result in him being a mensch. Boasting incredible dialogue from the great Billy Wilder, who also directed, The Apartment is one of the best romantic comedies of all time.
8. Annie Hall
Year: 1977
Director: Woody Allen
Say what you will about Woody Allen, but Annie Hall is undeniable. Starring Allen as a neurotic comedian who dates—and eventually loses—the titular Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), the Best Picture-winning film is as much a love letter to New York City as it is an exploration of love. Especially in scenes where it contrasts New York with Los Angeles, Annie Hall makes a case for why, for certain people, the Big Apple is the only place in the world that could possibly be home.
7. Ghostbusters
Year: 1984
Director: Ivan Reitman
The New York City setting of Ghostbusters is essential to why the movie works. Only in New York could ghosts run amok in the streets and have people treat them as annoying pests like rats or roaches in need of extermination—assuming they even notice them at all. Even with all the comedy chops of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters would not be the same without the people who live in the Big Apple. (Men In Black, which swaps ghouls for aliens, is another worthwhile New York City movie that takes advantage of the city's craziness and its citizens' willingness to accept it as normal.)
6. Crossing Delancey
Year: 1988
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) is quite content with her life working at a hip bookstore. Still, her grandma (her bubbe), an old-school Jewish woman living on the Lower East Side, wants her to settle down with a nice Jewish man, and she gets a marriage broker to set Isabelle up with Sam Posner (Peter Riegert), a pickle salesman. In addition to the classic rom-com "do opposites attract?" trope, Crossing Delancy is also about two very different eras of the city and the changing of times—and indeed the then-contemporary version of New York presented as Isabelle's world is now itself something to be looked at nostalgically.
5. Uncut Gems
Year: 2019
Directors: Josh and Benny Safdie
Adam Sandler really should've been nominated for an Oscar for his role in the Safdie brothers' excruciatingly stressful thriller about a gambling addict. Sandler's Howard Ratner runs a jewelry store in Manhattan's Diamond District. However, he makes (and loses!) real money betting on sports, and the film follows him throughout the city and into Long Island as he scrambles to stay ahead of loan sharks and win big. There is so much nervous adrenaline powering Uncut Gems that you understand why the city never sleeps.
4. Do The Right Thing
Year: 1989
Director: Spike Lee
Spike Lee's masterpiece takes the "melting pot" that is New York City and boils it, as tensions rise between the Black residents of Brooklyn's Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood and the Italian-American owners of a pizza shop on the hottest day of the summer. Lee himself stars as Mookie, a young man who must make a choice when a tragedy occurs. An entertaining, insightful look at race in America's biggest city, Do The Right Thing is a landmark work of cinema.
3. Taxi Driver
Year: 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) doesn't have especially kind things to say about New York, which he likens to "an open sewer" in Martin Scorsese's acclaimed psychological drama. In his defense, the city was in rough shape in the '70s. Still, it doesn't excuse Travis' growing mania as he drives a cab around the five boroughs at night, becoming fixated on a woman and eventually pursuing violence. A disturbing look at the dark side of New York, Taxi Driver is frighteningly relevant today—the city might have cleaned up, but the toxic masculinity it depicts is as ugly as ever.
2. When Harry Met Sally…
Year: 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
"I'll have what she's having." Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan star as the title characters in what might be the best romantic comedy ever made. The Nora Ephron-penned film follows Harry and Sally across a dozen years, the bulk of which takes place in New York City, as they go from having a bad first impression to becoming fast (platonic) friends to, well, as the ellipsis in the title implies, perhaps something more. It's a charming, hilarious love story, and also one that celebrates what makes the Big Apple so special. In a city of millions, Harry and Sally keep bumping into one another.
1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Year: 1974
Director: Joseph Sargent
The subway is the lifeblood of New York City, and this classic thriller—which was remade into a 2009 Tony Scott-directed film that's pretty good, too—brings it to a halt when criminals take a downtown 6 train hostage. Starring Robert Shaw as the leader of the hostage-takers and a weary Walter Matthau as the Transit Police lieutenant negotiating with him, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a hoot and a holler that gets a lot of mileage out of taking a bunch of classic New York characters and trapping them in a high-stakes situation on a subway that most residents take every day. On top of all that, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three boasts one of the greatest final shots of any film as Matthau puts his hangdog face to use when he cracks the case.
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